


The Aftermath

by StoleTarts



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Gay Character, Drama, F/M, Gay Sex, M/M, Male Slash, Male-Female Friendship, Science Fiction, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-15 05:04:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 50,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3434591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoleTarts/pseuds/StoleTarts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The sole survivor of a mission to an abandoned Cerberus base on Mars finds a living experiment that leads him in unlocking the secrets to Shepard's past and the true nature of the Reapers. </p>
<p>*Revised fanfic! Contains original characters and a customized M!Shepard with romantic ties to Kaidan Alenko. Post-Mass Effect 3 timeline.*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was no surprise that breathing was hard to do, considering it was Mars. Oxygen flow was only at fifty-seven percent thanks to a valve on the back of his helmet that took damage during the collapse of a rusted floor which dropped him into the basement of the facility. Still, to be alive and barely breathing was better than those who had already died from suffocation, exposure, laser fire, and/or being swept away in the most random of dust storms. Whatever the Alliance thought they had found out here on this barren planet better be worth the lives of an entire squad, with the exception of one. Then again, Kyo had always been lucky.

The crimson-red paint job on his repurposed N7 armor was already fading. It had been through waves of Husks, Cannibals, Cerberus troops, and even stared down a Reaper or two. Even without the threat of the end of the galaxy anymore, it didn’t mean that the sun had come out with rainbows and tweeting birds. Earth had sustained heavy losses and with the slow repair of the Mass Relays and everyone was in need of supplies. A reported secret Cerberus base on Mars was said to have some tech in it that may not have been massively damaged by the Crucible’s giant EMP blast. A signal which originated from the base was strong enough to make it to space and shook up the curiosity of several top ranking military officials. Whatever, or whomever, created that distress beacon was still somewhere in this underground facility.

_Oxygen levels at fifty percent._  

The message had appeared in text from inside of the helmet as it splashed across the glass visor.

Well, shit.

The flashlight at the end of the N7 Paladin heavy pistol had exposed nothing down here but corpses; Human remains in both lab coats and medical gowns. Some were still strapped to their tables, most likely died when the building lost power and had effectively cut off their life support. Others may have died from whatever experiments they were a part of, willingly or not. The entanglement of tubes from various bodies connected to jars of fluid, some of which were broken and puddled in gelatinous blue and green designs on the tiled floor. The rank smell of embalming fluid and other chemicals even managed to pierce through the helmet’s vents, making Kyo’s face tighten up just before his omni-tool lit up on his wrist. The signal was stronger now, indicating how he was close, but that was just another way of saying that it was getting more dangerous. With a quick motion, he cocked the gun and forced a hot thermal clip to ping loudly off the floor.

The omni-tool rolled down the numbers in meters as Kyo walked blindly towards his target. Twenty meters, fifteen, ten, five --- zero. There, in front of the soldier, was a large holding vat made of glass filled with a light-blue liquid where small bubbles were still being circulated. Despite the power being long gone from this place, this container still had dimly-lit lights and a steady stream of airflow. The glass was fogged over, which prompted Kyo to wipe away the film out of curiosity. There he saw it; a light brown-skinned face with closed eyelids topped off with a large mass of swirling white hair. After wiping more of the condensation away, he then managed to see the rest of the floating body. It was thin, male, and in its late-teens to early twenties from the looks of it. It was a bit too blurry from behind the glass to make out any major details, but the unnatural white hair was unsettling enough. Was this even a human being?

With a hand on the container, the arm’s omni-tool began to static uncontrollably. Kyo put the arm to his helmet as he clumsily tapped away at the screen as lines of code began to scroll on their own. There was another noise , causing Kyo to jump with attention and aim the gun directly behind where he was standing. Carefully, he moved forward until he found that it was just a console activating itself. A VI maybe, he thought as he tried to navigate to some sort of access menu. Perhaps there was an automatic trigger rigged in case anyone entered this room during an emergency?

Holding his arm out, the omni-tool seemed to work by itself and completed a hack the solider couldn’t muster on his best day. There was the sound of steam being released from the vat as the hack had apparently finished. The surrounding glass slid up as the pressurized locks released with a flood of chemicals draining out into pre-cut vents imbedded on the floor. “Hey wait!” Kyo shouted as he ran to catch the nude and slippery body as it fell from its holding cell.

He actually managed to get there just in time, but the weight caused them to both to hit the floor anyway. Wonderful. Now he was stuck with a naked, wet, and unconscious science project who was going to die anyway in a building without any…oxygen?

_Systems back online._

The announcement came from overhead speakers as the lights flickered before turning back on completely while the sounds of random doors as they opened and closed themselves surrounded him. It wasn’t until there was fog on Kyo’s visor did he even notice how the air had been cut back on as well. Taking off the helmet, the young fighter took a deep breath of slightly stale, but welcomed recycled oxygen. His short cut, but rather messy black hair stuck to his forehead from the heat as his dark eyes looked down at what he just caught.

Was this the signal?

He took a moment to remember how an entire team had been sacrificed for this lifeless body. How could a single person be worth all of those lives, even his own? With time to spare now, Kyo gave the body in his lap a good once over and noticed the many scars with an extreme amount of exposed implants he couldn’t recognize. Not that he was an expert in such things, but these definitely weren’t L2’s or L3’s. Perhaps they were L4’s or maybe even Reaper tech was his best guess. Cerberus was in bed with the likes of the evil machines who tried to exterminate all life, weren’t they? These implants trailed down the male’s back, across the ribs, down the arms, and were even on the inside of his palms. While running a few gloved fingers through the white hair, Kyo also felt metal attachments on both the skull and down the back of the neck as well. The fingers then forced the closed eyelids open with the expectation to see false metal eyeballs, but they were instead a highly organic in a pleasant shade of light-green.

Still, despite all of the touching and probing, the body didn’t respond at all, but at least it seemed to be breathing on its own. After letting out a sigh, Kyo hoisted the young man onto his shoulder so that he could start walking through the blood-stained building in order to look for some extra armor, even if it meant cutting a body out of it first. This was a priority since exposing a human body to barren Mars would kill them almost instantly. It didn’t care how many implants they had installed. “Suit…suit…aha. Well, we just met and I’ve already seen you naked. Guess it’s not a big deal if I dress you either. I’m Kyo, by the way, former popstar, Alliance workforce of…carrying around naked guys. What’s your name?” Of course, Kyo was just talking to himself considering. It was his way of staying sane. “Right, you don’t have a name. Well, you have freaky white hair, so I’ll call you Shiro. Any complaints?” If silence was the answer that Kyo was looking for, he received it in spades. “Didn’t think so. Ah, here we go. This has Cerberus written all over it, but beggars can’t be picky.” It took a few minutes to pull the suit on  _Shiro_ , but he had managed. He then hung the helmet on the suit’s belt, just like he did to his own, and continued to follow the lit-up emergency exit signs on the walls.

“Ah, great.” The hallway had been sealed off from an attack with the door tightly locked. “Alright, Shiro. Magic hour time.” Placing the body back down, Kyo put on their helmets before holding up his omni-tool to the door. It lit up and spun as Kyo made his best attempt to hack the security lock on his own. “Failed…failed…shit, I’m not an engineer! Come on! Hey, Shiro! Help me out here!” There was a laugh from Kyo, who knew he was only talking to thin air, but the tool lit up again. After a few seconds of running smoothly through lines of code, the red lock suddenly turned green. “….Huh. Weird.” The door opened and the sands of Mars rushed through the opening as Kyo found himself, once again, exposed to the dry air of the red planet. “Well, we’re outside again. Shuttle shouldn’t be too far from here. I hope.” After tapping at the screen on the tool, there was a steady beep indicating where their ride was. “Bingo. Alright, Shiro. Here we go.”

The body was lifted again and was moved to rest against Kyo’s back. With that, the awkward pair began to walk their way through the fiery sand dunes as they headed towards the ship.


	2. Base Turanga

It was roughly twenty feet out from the base's door when another message ticketed across Kyo's visor.

_Oxygen levels at forty percent._

In the midst of finding the half-dead body, Kyo had all but forgotten about his broken helmet's valve and his dangerously low supply of leaking breathable air. Maybe it was the friendly reminder’s fault, but he suddenly felt dizzy. The noticeable heat increase which came with walking across a barren wasteland while carrying a passed-out creature on his back didn’t help either. "Just a bit longer to the shuttle, Shiro. Don't worry though, I'll get us there."

_Oxygen levels at twenty-five percent._

The extra weight was causing Kyo to breathe more heavily than he would on his own from just simply walking and was shortening his air supply at an alarming rate. Finally, up upon a large dune, he spotted the shuttle. "See,” he breathed out a strained sigh of relief. “Look. I told you I'd get us there…I…" Collapsing to one knee, the young man grunted in pain as his chest burned in suffocation. "Fuck, come on! The shuttle is right there! The…shuttle…Why is the shuttle moving?" From a distance, a cloud of kicked up sand from the jets of the transporter could be seen as it began to take off. It made a vertical assent into the sky before flying over and landing neatly in front of the pair. The hatch door opened to an unusual, but welcomed sight. Pushing himself up, Kyo ran at full sprint with his arms tightly wrapped around Shiro's legs over towards and finally inside of the ship. After eyeing the shuttle's seat, he was surprised to find it empty, despite the console being active. Once the hatch closed, the haul filled with fresh air.

Shiro was all but tossed down into an empty passenger seat as the still awake solider removed the suffocating helmet in order to breathe in deeply. The fresh, cold oxygen only made the fire in his lungs worse, but the pain subsided as his breathing returned to normal. Still, there was the matter of the shuttle flying itself. Sitting in the driver's seat, Kyo tapped away at the controls as he tried to figure out what the hell had just happened. "Auto-pilot reprogrammed to land at these coordinates? How did it know where I was going to be? And at that exact time?" Looking over his shoulder, the dark eyes suspiciously looked at Shiro's limp body, though he wasn’t even going to pretend to know what was going on. All that mattered to Kyo was that he was still alive and secured the target package. As far as he was going to concern himself with, it was a successful mission and a closed case.

"This is Admiral Hackett. Come in ground team. Do you read me? Over." Turning back around, Kyo punched in a few commands trying to clear up the static.

"This is ground team to Hackett. Package secured, but we took heavy losses. I'm the only one that made it out. Over."

"Hackett to ground team, did you manage to find out what was causing those signals? Can you rendezvous with the fleet? Over." Now there was a question that Kyo was about to have trouble in answering.

"Ground team to Hackett. Uh, I think I grabbed what was in the Cerberus base, but this isn't any kind of technology. It's…" Heavy static filled the airwaves on both ends of the transmission as page after page of partially encrypted files started to manifest themselves onto the multiple monitoring screens. What wasn't encoded provided lists of names, locations, and projects in which Cerberus had either taken control of or conducted in secret. Either by good fortune or not, some of the names were all too familiar to the Admiral's eyes. The elder man stood to watch and read from his position on deck in a flagship floating outside the repairing Citadel, certain keywords and compilations caught his attention. These included dossiers on Kaidan Alenko and the rest of the Normandy team, as well as breakdowns of Reaper technology, Project: Overload, Codename: EDI, and Project: EVA. The last partially encrypted file to show before the transmission cut was Codename: Lazarus, leaving red blip on both Kyo's and the Admiral's galaxy maps. "Admiral? Hello? I just had a power surge with all these…things… come up. Do you copy? Over."

"I'm here, soldier. Tell me exactly what you found on that base. Over." Kyo turned around in his chair to look at Shiro's crumpled body once again.

"Uh…it's a person, I think. A young human man, but his looks are a bit…iffy. He's got all these implants and he's out cold. Completely non-responsive, but his vitals are good. He was in a self-perseveration tank in the lab. Over."

"I see. Well, whatever it is just filled our servers with almost every piece of Cerberus information from the past five years, at the very least. Some of it is heavily coded, but I know a few of these names. Listen, what's your name, kid? Over."

"It's Takashi, sir. Sergeant Kyo Takashi. I was reassigned to this mission because I wear…"

"The new N7 Paladin armor, right? Your file says you used to be some kind of intergalactic singer before the attack? Didn't go into hiding like the rest of the celebrities? Over." Kyo pressed his lips together before answering.

"If I hid on the Citadel, I'd be dead by now, sir. Over."

"True enough. Tell you what soldier; I need you to follow that red blip on your map. There's a makeshift docking port just outside of Jupiter right there. No idea what you're looking for, but keep an eye out for the human Spectre, Major Kaidan Alenko. He's out there training some Biotic recruits and gathering supplies. I have a feeling you're being put on a scavenger hunt. We’ll see where this leads. Over." This stunned the young sergeant, delaying his response.

"Kaidan Alenko? Why would he bother talking to a grunt like me? I'm not even a Biotic and didn't he use to work with Commander Shepard? Over."

"He did. I'll tell you more when we know more. You have your orders. Over and out."

"But sir, I…" The transmission ended and caused Kyo's eyes to narrow. "What about this damn body in the back of my ride!? Shit!" Punching the console, the frustrated singer sighed. "I didn't mean it, Shiro." Alas, there was still no response. "Right. To Jupiter then…"

The fifth planet from the sun was covered in noxious gases where only miners went to gather liquid, metallic hydrogen while wearing strong hazard suits and operating hovercrafts. Despite the actual dangers of the planet itself, the sixty-six moons however made for great tourist spots. At least, that's what the brochures would say. In reality, it was a haven for dozens of shady slum bars full of mercs from the bottom of the barrel. For humans who were looking for a quick way out of the Sol system, either alive or in a body bag, the moons of Jupiter was the spot to go. Even Kyo, who often went to underground trashy places like these to get his Creeper or Hallex fix before the Reaper invasion, had never stepped onto one of these bases before. On the shuttle's control panel, he pulled up the galaxy map which was now also displaying that annoying red blip which now seemed to dictate his life and beeped annoying to firmly confirm a location on one of the smaller moons.

Since the invasion, many of the rundown cantinas and dives had been taken over as outlooks and small base camps. With any luck, this particular spot would be least somewhat friendly to the Alliance military by now. "So we're looking for this Kaidan Alenko guy? Hm, any idea where he might be, Shiro?" Turning the pilot chair around, Kyo looked to the unconscious man for some sort of sign. "Geesh, you really need to do something. Blink once for yes, twice for no? Wave your arms around? Nothing?" There was a beeping noise which suddenly came on Kyo's omni-tool to indicate _something_ he may have just asked for. Holding the arm up, its pop-up screen displayed an image of the missing Major as a small animatronic voice spoke.

_Scanning. Scanning. Found._

In the place of Major Alenko's face was now a compass-like arrow, retaining the same direction no matter which way Kyo turned.

"…Well, that's convenient,” he said to himself loudly while hardly surprised that this sort of weird shit kept happening to him. The chair was then turned back as the solider tapped at the console up front. "This is Sergeant Kyo Takashi, Alliance Military, requesting permission to dock. Authorization code: Alpha Romeo four-two-niner. Over."

"Copy that Sergeant, dock in bay 4-H. How many are in your landing party? Over." A gruff manish voice spoke over the radio in response to the hail.

"Just myself…and a…uh…drunk friend. He's passed out, you know, rough night. Over."

"Ha, copy that. Clearance for two approved. Welcome to Base Turanga. Over." The shuttle shook as it landed in the twisted metal of the thrown together docking bay that was littered with more than just a few ghost ships, stripped down to their frames for parts. When the hatch opened, Kyo had Shiro repositioned onto his back as he was saluted by a bearded dock worker. "Wow, when you said you had a friend passed out, we didn't think you meant it. You want to head to the med bay?"

"Nah, he's fine. Hey, have you seen or heard from Spectre Alenko? I heard he's on this rock somewhere." There was a slight pause as the worker looked away. The shifting light brown eyes underneath the mess of mouse-blonde hair and Alliance baseball cap called his bluff long before an answer escaped the thin, dry lips.

"O-Only thing I know is that he was there for the final push with Commander Shepard. Shepard saved him before he…you know…"

"Yeah, I heard that too. Well, thanks anyway. Where can I get a drink around here?" The worker perked up immediately.

"Oh, take the path inside on the left and follow the lights. You can't miss it. Only place that isn't really dead around here. "

"Thanks, pal. Come on, Shiro." Shifting his weight, Kyo made sure he had a good hold on Shiro's thighs since the body was lying limp against the armored back. Out of sight, the sergeant held up the omni-tool again. Turning, the arrow seemed to fixate in the same direction as the bar. It was a wonder why the great Major Alenko was hiding in a place like this, but it was all too hush-hush for Kyo's tastes, personally. While the streets seemed to be littered with various races, a good number of them were still human. There was a make-shift clinic being run by some Asari and Salarians, while Krogans and Turians patrolled to keep the mercs in line. There were even a few Quarians about, which was no surprise since this place was a giant scrapyard.

"Hey! Someone stop them!" The muffled yells of an older Quarian male were heard, causing Kyo to turn around as two suits ran by him in a dash.

"Keep your mouth shut and I'll give you thirty credits!" It was from the voice of a female suit then followed by a slightly smaller male one.

"Hey, hey you! Human!" The owner of the older male voice was seen. "Have you seen two kids around here. Quarian kids. They just ran off with a box of my tools and some Geth parts. They…"

"Sorry, I didn't see anyone. Was watching that fight over there." Pointing, Kyo motioned to the opposite direction of a Turian and Krogan having it out over what appeared to be either over an Asari or a pissing contest.

"Kelaah, another one. Well, if you see them I'll give you some credits if you can get my tools back."

"I'll keep an eye out, sir." Waving the human off, the Quarian went back to his workbench in despair. When out of sight, Kyo moved to look down the alleyway where the thieves had taken off to. Curious, he kept walking until he spotted them hovered down and going through their new stash. "Hey."

Startled, the female jumped to her feet holding out some sort of spinning metal contraption. "Stand back, I know how to use this!"

"…Is that...? That’s a screwdriver."

So it was.

"Yes, but it can be very dangerous! I…" Laughing, Kyo used a free hand to try to motion that he wasn't about to start a fight.

"Look, I'm not going to hurt you or shake you down. What the hell are you two doing anyway?"

"Fixing our Geth." The younger boy spoke up very clearly since he was obviously too busy in whatever he was doing to be concerned.

"Shut up, Chekov! Keelah, I told you to keep your big mouth shut." Chekov then turned to the female as his head tilted.

"But Leliah, we are…"

"Shush!" Kyo had stopped to watch, trying his best not to smile which triggered a nervous laugh from Leliah, herself.

"Ha…haha…I'm Leliah and this minor, big-mouthed annoyance is my little brother, Chekov. We…are…just…well."

"Stealing parts to fix Geth,” Kyo nodded as it wasn’t too difficult to piece together. “But you know they were wiped out from the Crucible, right? All AI went dark and even some VI flickered out from the EMP blast."

"Went dark, yes, but they are software. Software doesn't just 'die'. The program may be damaged or can't be read, but we can't just believe that they all died." There was sadness to her voice, along with a sense of longing. "We had Geth in our suits when the Crucible was fired. We felt them, you know? It's like they just went to sleep. If we can find a way to turn even one back on, then they can help with the others. They were helping us adapt and were our friends." Kyo looked to her helmet before the omni-tool went off again.

"He's on the move. Look kids, stop stealing and I have to go."

"Huh? A VI?" Before he knew it, Kyo's arm had been hijacked and started to be tapped away at by the curious girl. "Hmm, a biometric reading? Seems like it's in The Black Hole bar. No, this is wrong."

"Hey! Kid! Let go!" The struggle to pull away while carrying another human being without hurting the lady Quarian on accident seemed to be too much for Kyo to do right now. Instead, he just held still.

"There, the map is actually reading underground. I've updated your Nav-Point to show the tunnel instead. There's a training camp down there for human Biotics, so you should be able to find this Major Alenko or whoever the heck that is." Pulling up his own tool, Chekov began a search.

"Major Kaidan Alenko, Human Spectre; second most popular to Commander Shepard, especially since they started a romantic relationship,” he stated yet tilted his head intrigued and began to type away faster. “Continuing search on how human males procreate with _other_ human males…”

"Hey, you're a little young for porn, kid! Especially that kind!" Kyo all but face-palmed as Chekov seemed to be a bit too serious for his own age. "So, how do I get underground?"

"Well, I could show you…but…" There was a devious pause from Leliah.

"But?"

"You'll have to take us with you."

"No."

"Oh, come on! Look, we have these mechs programmed to fight for us and you're a little…preoccupied carrying that thing behind you. Not to mention, when you find this guy, you have to take us with you. We can't stay here on this rock forever!"

"I said no."

"You'll never find a way underground without us."

A heavy sigh escaped Kyo's lips and he turned. "Fine, but stay behind me and keep out of sight. I can fight with one-hand whatever giant sewer rats or whatever is down there and I'm dropping you off at the first major port close to this dump when we leave, you got me?"

"Yes! Chekov! Get your stuff!"


	3. Major Kaidan Alenko

“ _This_ is the secret underground passage?” Kyo asked dismissively as the small group stood next to an open manhole with a service ladder already installed on the edge of it. There was also a large, crudely-painted wooden sign right next to the opening which said, ‘ _To the Underground Alliance Training Grounds_ ’.

“Yes, well,” Leliah stammered as she tried to defend her obvious trickery while letting Chekov slide down the ladder first. “It’s very confusing once you get down there!” She followed soon after, hitting the ground with a thud before calling up. “You can come down! It’s safe now!” Rolling his eyes, Kyo was careful about going down the ladder with only one good hand to get a decent grip with while the other tried to hold onto one of Shiro’s legs so that he wouldn’t fall to the filthy pavement below. Once they were all safely on the grated walkway, a heavy pistol was drawn with a lit flashlight at its tip to illuminate the way. Even though the floor was trailed in small white lights, it was still difficult to see clearly or to even tell what could be running around wild down here. Since there wasn’t any immediate danger, Kyo began to lead the way.

“Come on,” he said in a hushed voice as he crept slowly forward with the pistol still sharply aimed. The Quarians looked to each other before nodding. Following the lights, the tunnel echoed with muffled voices and dripping pipes, but it was the constant sound of footsteps which made Kyo uneasy. The sensitive ears of the formerly famous singer could recognize the difference between background noise and what was in his actual vicinity.

“So what’s the deal with you and that dead body?” The voice of the younger Quarian boy was inquisitive as usual, even though he didn’t really seem all that interested rather than just wanting to break the uncomfortable silence.

“Chekov! Don’t be rude…Ah…What he means to say is…,” the sister interjected, but was cut off.

“What’s with me and the dead body? I can hear just fine, thanks.” The sergeant’s attitude made Leliah uneasy enough to force another nervous laugh from her a second time since their meeting. Continuing to look ahead with the weapon still drawn, Kyo answered the question without removing his gaze the dancing shadows in the distance. “He’s not dead. He’s in some kind of coma, but I have my orders. He’s the best lead I’ve got.”

“But…he’s not conscious.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” The omni-tool on the pistol-carrying arm lit up again and the animatronic voice spoke as it updated the nav point.

_Subject found._

_10 meters._

_5 meters._

_1 meter._

“Shit! GET DOWN NOW!”

The arrow was pointing behind them as in the distance, a glowing blue light approached at rapid speed. After pushing the siblings into a corner, Kyo took a knee as his omni-tool reshaped the small, hard-light screen into a large, glowing orange shield. It formed just in time to absorb the impact of the basketball-sized biotic mass which would have tossed the party into various directions otherwise. Scrambling, the Quarians took cover as best they could and began to tap away at their own tools while tossing inert little drones towards the direction of the fight. The crab-like robots began to shoot off small rockets into the darkness where the biotic attack had come from. While it may have been a good faith effort to assist in their own way, the missiles were still knocked away to explode against the sewer’s walls. “Major Alenko, stand down!” Kyo shouted from behind his shield as he remained crotched.

“Why are you following me?” was the first question Kaidan asked from the distance in a harsh and hoarse tone as the sounds of his steps grew closer. “Which merc team is it this time?” was the second. “Blue Suns? Blood Pack? Some Drell Assassin? I’ve seen them all.” Despite at least acknowledging that this was, in fact, the human Spectre he had been looking for, Kyo still wasn’t convinced enough to drop his shield. This turned out to be a good thing since Kaidan then teleported over and nearly shattered it with a close-range attack. The few shots that Kyo did manage to fire before having to brace himself for impact went through the man as if the major were a ghost and even though he had prepared his body to take the hit, he was still pushed a few feet backwards with his armored boots scrapping against the slick metal-grated flooring with an earsplitting screech.

“Neither…I’m…with the Alliance. Hackett…sent…me!” It took a great deal of determination and raw strength just to push Kaidan back as the shield recovered power, but it left Kyo winded.

Pausing, Kaidan took a look to his left to see the pair of terrified Quarian children and seeing their fear helped him regain his senses. The tremendous force which enflamed his body was reduced from a raging blue fire to a gentle glow.

“Hackett did? Why?”

“No idea, sir. I just have my orders to find you…and…I was sort of led here.”

“By them?” Kaidan turned to look at Kyo only briefly before looking back at the kids.

“Yes and no, sir,” Kyo answered, but still didn’t trust the biotic enough to drop his defenses entirely. Exhausted from the short yet intense battle, he continued to speak as best as he could. “If you’re done trying to kill me, I’ll answer all the questions I can, though it won’t amount to much.”

“Fine. Come on.” Teleporting yet again, Kaidan’s body flickered and reappeared in front to take the lead. Dark eyes narrowed as the sergeant watched his superior move about in such a way. It reminded him entirely too much of how banshees would flicker about before shoving their arms into the bodies of his teammates. He had a general distain for biotics to begin with and now this one in particular, even more so. Still, he got what he wanted and turned to the Quarians.

“Come out, guys. It’s alright now.” The siblings nodded, standing to gather their tiny bots and cradled them in their arms as they followed along. Kaidan didn’t speak for the entire five minutes or so of walking before he opened a nearly invisible door, leading them to a surprisingly clean and well-lit apartment. There were several monitors stationed at a small desk and a made bed in the corner with crisp, white sheets. On the nightstand was a photo, turned down onto its face. Sitting in the only chair at the desk, Kaidan swiveled to face Kyo as the siblings took seats upon the soft bed. Of course, when Shiro’s body was tossed down between them, they quickly scattered off like little mice to stand in opposite corners of the room. Sighing as the weight was removed from his body, the sergeant took a moment to stretch and look around. “Nice place.”

“Uh huh, so you said that Admiral Hackett sent you over? For what? To hide a body? There are better people for that sort of job around here.” Kaidan spoke with suspicion in his voice, eyeing the motionless corpse that was now on top of his clean sheets.

“That’s Shiro, so I call him, and he’s not dead. He’s just…weird,” Kyo pointed out in a minor attempt to clarify.

“Right, you have some drugged body instead? What do you really want from me, kid? I haven’t got all day.” There was another sigh as Kyo reached over to pull the major up into a standing position. He then took Kaidan’s omni-tool bearing arm by the wrist in order to hold it over Shiro’s body.

“Look, this is gonna sound weird, but this guy wanted me to find you. Just…stand there for a second. Something’s gonna happen.”

“Something?” Kaidan asked in disbelief. “Like what? Look, I…” His speech was abruptly cut off as his omni-tool’s display screen popped up and began to speak to him.

_Scanning. Scanning. Subject Found: Major Kaidan Alenko._

_Access granted._

It flickered to show a video playback; only static at first before it became very clear. It was from a security camera in Huerta Memorial Hospital; a recording from after he was attacked by that Cerberus fem-bot. From the looks of it, this recording was from while he was still unconscious and bedridden. He watched as Commander Shepard spoke from the doorway of his hospital room, saying things he didn’t remember hearing in that state.

“I need you,” was Shepard’s final line before the audio cut out. Kaidan’s chest tighten.

“…Shepard,” he said breathlessly as the screen froze on the commander’s expression. When Kaidan’s fingers touched the digital image of his lover’s face, the display changed to the galaxy map instead. Once again, the electronic voice of the tool spoke.

_Scanning. Scanning._

_Subject found: Dr. Liara T’soni. Additional subject verification is required._

_System shutting down._

“Liara? Wait! No! Dammit!” No matter how much Kaidan pounded at his forearm, the screen would not return with the same image as before. Kyo had wandered off to take the liberty of turning up the facedown picture upright. It was the same scruffy faced man from the vid.

“You,” Kaidan said as he shot a glare to the prying sergeant. “What the hell just happened?” he asked as he frustratingly turned the frame back down after grabbing it from Kyo’s hand.

“Even if I were to guess, you wouldn’t believe me anyway. I don’t even believe it myself.” The weary eyes from both men peered over at Shiro, who still remained as he had always been.

“Try me.” Kyo only huffed while looking away in youthful rebellion. After taking a seat upon the mattress, he moved Shiro’s arm to rest on top of the blanket there instead of dangling off to the side.

“What do you know about Cerberus?” The question was serious enough and unwavering. It also caused Kaidan’s hazel eyes to narrow with even more rage.

“Enough. Get to the point.”

“This guy,” Kyo began with a pointed gesture, “is a Cerberus project. He’s got all these implants in his body and I think he’s leading us somewhere. He does stuff that messes with tech. It’s like a ghost in the machine or something. He only does it for a little while, but his body doesn’t move at all. He’s breathing and there’s a heartbeat, so I think that he’s trying to tell us something, but can’t, ya know?”

“What?” Kyo was right about one thing and it was that Kaidan didn’t believe him in the slightest. “You’re saying he’s…what? Manipulating tech in on ethereal level? That’s completely ridiculous…” Although admittedly, he also remembered how this wasn’t the first time someone had suggested something like this was possible to him.

“No,” Kyo answered. “Well, yes. Maybe? I don’t know. I was just told to find him because there was some weird signal coming from an abandoned Cerberus base on Mars. We thought it was maybe a black box with an automatic SOS transmission. I mean, he kind of is, right? But we were expecting, I don’t know, an actual _box_ or hard drive. A secured server perhaps, but not an entire person!” Since Kaidan and the Quarians seemed dumbfound, the room remained quiet until Kyo’s intercom went off.

“Sergeant? Sergeant, do you read me? Did you find Major Alenko? Over.” The incoming voice was all too familiar to both soldiers.

“Yes sir, he’s right here. Over.”

“Major, this is Admiral Hackett. Have you been briefed on the current situation? Over.”

Still in disbelief, Kaidan remained quiet for a moment as he looked to the body on his bed before answering. “More or less, Admiral. Over.”

“Good. I need you to join this mission. Over.”

“No offence sir, but what mission? Over.”

“Then you are not aware? The subject that was found at the Cerberus base flooded our intel with files dating back over twenty years. We are still working on the encryption, but we have some broken information on Project Lazarus.” There was a paused as Hackett wanted to be perfectly clear. “We believe the subject is looking for the rest of the Normandy team. We also believe the subject may know the location of Commander Shepard. Over.”

 


	4. Salt and Pepper Hair

“Shepard?” Kaidan’s voice cracked slightly just at the thought of going down that road again. “But Admiral, you know as well as I do that it’s not possible. We spent weeks looking in the Citadel, moving through all those bodies, and testing human remains for DNA matches. We then spent even more time just combing through London and for what? Whatever Shepard did, he saved us all…but now he’s gone.”

“Do you really believe that, Major?” There was a small sigh as Kaidan looked away. A hand moved to cover his mouth before sliding upward to rub his tired eyes.

“I don’t have a choice.”

“Perhaps, but this may be our second chance. If nothing else, we need to know what’s going on. We can’t afford another surprise attack, am I understood?” The biotic remained quiet for the few seconds he rubbed the inner corners of his eyelids before answering his superior.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good,” Hackett said with a bit of relief. “Major, I’m putting you in charge of Sergeant Takashi and the experiment. Keep them safe. I’ve also contacted the Normandy.”

“The Normandy? Is Joker still flying?”

“Let’s just say he was more than happy to get out of the classroom and back into the pilot’s seat. Rendezvous in four hours at the dock. Hackett out.”

“I should have left when I had the chance,” Kaidan mumbled before turning to his newfound crew. “Get your gear together and let’s head out, all of you. This is no place for kids to be alone.”

“We’re taking them?” Even Kyo had to question the decision to bring a pair of young Quarians along.

“Stop hassling me, Sergeant. Gather up your dead body over there and move out.”

“I keep telling you he’s not dead! God damn it, Shiro. Come on.” Lifting the limp companion off the bed was a bit of a hassle for him as the Cerberus project seemed to bend in every which direction possible. “First thing we do when you’re awake is put you on a diet! You’re getting heavy. Don’t worry about the major either. He’s just a bitter, old biotic. We both know you’re not really dead.”

“Would you stop talking to that thing? You’re creeping me out.”

“See. Bitter, old biotic.”

“I’m not old!”

“That salt and pepper hair of yours says otherwise.”

“That’s just a sign of maturity!”

“And old age.”

“Would you two stop it already?! Sounding like a couple of bos’hetts!” Leliah yelled over both of them. “Come on, Chekov. Let’s head back to the surface.” Since being told off by the young woman was embarrassing to both of the human soldiers, it was decided they had best bury the hatchet for now at least. Adjusting his frame, Kyo slipped Shiro’s arms around his neck to carry the body piggyback-style again as Kaidan was the last to leave the apartment. The major’s omni-tool locked the door behind them, but he headed in the opposite direction of the tunnel from which they came.

“Hey, it’s this way.” Another hidden panel opened a meter down from where they were standing leading to an elevator. It was a tight fit as technically five people squeezed inside. The awkward silence and slow ascend was interrupted by a soft- spoken, but strong singing voice. Heads turned in unison to look at Kyo standing in the back as he stared at the ceiling until he noticed how hard the stares in his direction were. Abruptly, the singing stopped.

“…What?” Wide-eyed, he returned the stares with an eyebrow cocked in question as if he perhaps had accidently offended someone. After cracking a corner smile, Kaidan only shook his head before turning back around to watch the elevator doors.

“You’ve got a set of pipes on you, kid.”

“Oh,” the sergeant responded without any sort of surprise. “Yeah, sorry. Habit.”

“Singing in elevators is a habit?” This teasing question came from Leliah.

“Not just elevators. You should hear me in the shower.” Her inquiry was answered with a flirtatious wink which startled and flustered the girl at the same time.

“Well…if you insist…” Meanwhile, Chekov tapped away at his omni-tool in order to both answer a question of his own making and to occupy himself. After finding what he was looking for, the smallest of the party spoke in a monotone.

“Kyo Takashi, lead singer of the Earth pop duo, _Otherside_. Number of Earth hit singles: twelve. Number of intergalactic hit singles: twenty. Tickets for live concerts range from three-thousand to fifteen- thousand credits.” At this point, Kaidan had broken out in laughter.

“Wait…wait. Pop duo? You’re a freakin’ popstar?”

“Well, yes,” Kyo answered to the question he suspected to be an insult, though there was really no point in denying the fact. “Everyone had a life before the Reapers, except for you maybe.”

“Well, I’ve always been a soldier. Still, if we run into any bad guys, maybe you can put them to sleep with a lullaby or something? You know, since your aim isn’t worth shit.” Smirking, Kaidan felt as if he had just one-upped for the greying hair comment earlier while the singer could only glare until a datapad was held in front of his face.

“Could I get an autograph print? I love your band,” asked a newly overstimulated Quarian.

“I…um…sure?” Reaching out, Kyo tapped the pad which caused Leliah to squeak a bit in excitement.

“Don’t know why I didn’t recognize you earlier? I guess it’s been a long time since I really sat down and listened to some good music.”

“Ah great, now we’re going to have every teenage girl chasing in a fifty mile radius after us on this mission…” Continuing his snippy remarks, Kaidan kept his smile even as the elevator doors opened for the crew to finally wiggle out of the small, white steel box.

“I’m going to head to the shops for a while to gather some supplies. You three, um four, wait here until I get back. “

“Yeah, yeah.” Annoyed, Kyo walked off to head towards the guard railing in order to watch some ships fly in and out. Leliah looked to the back of Kaidan’s black and white armor as the older man departed for the shops before taking in a deep breath of her own. She was relieved that the tension had at least died down, though sensed a great deal of pain in both soldiers. Despite the war being over with, the destruction left by the Reapers still had a great deal of work to be done before anything was actually fixed. Rebuilding broken ships and buildings were one thing, but lives were still in ruin.

Everyone had taken heavy losses. Looking to her little brother, she smiled, who returned the sign of affection. Despite their helmets, the Quarians were very much attuned to each other’s feelings. It was all about mood and body language. Losing their parents only strengthened that bond and need for family. Standing alone, Kyo quietly carried out a full-blown conversation with Shiro. He wasn’t sure when that had turned into a normal thing, but there he was, doing it anyway.

“Look at that, Shiro. Another human cruiser. You don’t really see enough of them now and days, do we?” The empty starry sky was comforting after the Reaper invasion. “I used to watch ships like this back in Tokyo with my brother. We’d climb on top of the jungle gym together, talking about how we’d own one of those someday,” he smiled at the memory, but corrected himself. “Well, we weren’t _really_ brothers. We were in the orphanage together, you know. No one wanted us, so we made up our own family. He had this bright, blonde hair, so it’s not like people would really believe that we were really related anyway, right? Well, no offense. Your hair is a funny color too, sorry.” Shifting his weight again, Kyo had to readjust the body before his shoulders went numb. “You know, you’re not that fat. Must be all those implants or something? Dead weight, I guess…not that you’re dead. Don’t listen to what Major Asshole says. I know you’re alive. I can feel your heartbeat pounding against my back. You’re also breathing in my ear and it kinda tickles. Thank God you don’t snore.”

The conversation continued as if two old friends were catching up as the siblings on the other side of the dock took up in a corner to clean off their ball-sized droids and dig through the extranet for entertainment. Kaidan’s private time was spent in deep thought as he picked up medi-gel packs, extra thermal clips, and food rations for the trip. Walking past a glass window, he stopped to look at his own reflection. Sure, he now had a few more strands of white hair amongst the combed-back black waves, but it was the weariness of both the war and losing Shepard which showed the most in his sleep deprived eyes. For months, he believed Shepard was still alive. He was first to volunteer for the recovery team in London and even spearheaded the effort to go through the remains of the thousands of bodies left in various piles around the Citadel. The only thing he managed to find were Shepard’s blackened N7 dog tags. Pulling the chain out from behind the polished monochrome-stripped chest piece, a thumb gently caressed over the name as he cupped them in his palm. 

“What happened to you?”


	5. Remembrance (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kaidan has a beard in this story and Shepard is customized: http://tinyurl.com/mspdnhm

“Traynor. Hold my calls.”

“Sir?” Commander Shepard walked quickly past Specialist Traynor’s standing desk area on his way to the elevator. Right behind him was Major Alenko, noticeably going in the same direction. As the commander hit the call button to summon the lift, Kaidan stood close by. Looking away to straighten his composure before readdressing his Comm Specialist, Shepard repeated himself.

“Hold my calls. I’ll be in a meeting with Major Alenko until further notice.” There was a small ding as the double doors slid open, allowing for both men to walk inside. They stood next to each other at ease, though shared a few shy glances. Once the doors began to close, Traynor turned her head around just enough to catch a glimpse of the major moving to all but rush Shepard and embrace him in a passionate kiss.

“Meeting my arse,” she smirked while looking back to her console. “Holding calls…and well done, Commander.” Kaidan pressed his body to Shepard’s, effectively sandwiching him against the cold steel walls of the moving elevator as their lips refused to separate. When the skin there began to dry, he stopped kissing long enough to gently lick them over in a slow tease. While it only took a few seconds to reach the captain’s cabin, the heavy breathing between the two men was as if they had just run a marathon.

Hearts pounded in their chests as they playfully pushed and pulled each other past the sliding door which led to the inside of the Shepard’s quarters. Their bodies momentarily parted as Shepard moved away just far enough to unzip his worn black N7 hoodie. It was thrown to Kaidan, who caught it with one hand before tossing to the sofa and intercepting Shepard to stand in the middle of the room. His hands went around the commander’s waist, feeling underneath the form-fitting matching black t-shirt being worn to scratch at his muscular back and caress over any deep scarring or indentations from consistently wearing heavy armor. While staring at one another, their noses gently nuzzled as their breath mingled. “They were a shade of greyish-blue before, weren’t they? Your eyes, I mean,” he asked as his fingers continued to linger on the small of Shepard’s back.

Though the question wasn’t meant to resurface any unpleasant memories, Shepard nodded as he looked away with some regret and annoyance. He knew more than anyone just how artificial his eyes were now, modeled after the Illusive Man himself in a circular pattern similar to Saren’s after his indoctrination. However, instead of having the signature blue swirls of Reaper influence, they were instead a defiant red contrasting strongly against black irises. “They were same color as my mother’s.” The tone of Shepard’s voice reflected an almost ashamed admittance to his artificial reincarnation and remained turned away until Kaidan’s hand gently pinched his chin in order to regain his gaze. 

Leaning in, their lips touched in an apologetic kiss for bringing the subject up before their tongues slipped passed their barriers. From inside the shirt, the major’s hands grabbed the clingy fabric and began to lift it up. Shepard’s arms came up for it to be removed, messing up the once flattened black hair into boyish spikes as it came over his head. It was unfortunate that standard issue Alliance uniform shirts were a bit more complicated that an old-school tee, but his practiced hands managed to unzip the back, unbuckle the harnesses in the front, and pulled the damn thing up anyway.

When it was Kaidan’s turn to lift his arms, he did so with a cocky grin. With the white and blue padded top removed, Shepard gave it a toss towards the sofa to land on top of his own discarded clothing. As it landed with a heavy thud, he took no time at all to pull the other against his own bare skin. The tip of his nose gently traced the muscle line upward on Kaidan’s neck as heavy breathing both warmed and tickled the sensitive area. When the patterned black and red pupils looked up, they caught the attention of the honey-colored hazels looking down.

They were gentle in their gaze, approving of Shepard’s cautious movements of curious caresses and exploring. His own back and sides were being touched as well with dominating squeezes upon his hips. The hands of both of the men soon returned towards their fronts and downward, lining up with parallel pants buttons and zippers. While Shepard focused on his fingers working away at undoing the major’s belt, there was a gentle kiss that was planted upon his forehead and he smiled uncontrollably. On one hand, it was extremely comforting considering how nervous he was, but the quivering of Kaidan’s lips also assured him that even the ever stoic biotic was also feeling the same way.

As the zipper slid down the metal teeth, so did Shepard move to his knees. The heavy combat pants fell rather quickly around the black combat boots Kaidan had neglected to take off when coming into the room. With only a pair of tight-fitting black boxer shorts he wore left to confine a throbbing bulge, it pulsated quite visibly. Looking up, Shepard saw how Kaidan had a fixated on looking down at him, but the light-brown eyes diverted off to the side once they were caught staring. Behind the dark hair of his bearded cheeks, the skin there flushed pink as his pale lips pressed together in anticipation.

With twin index fingers, the undies were pulled down in order to free the painful erection from its confinement. The ripe tip was pleasantly swollen and gave off the distinct smell of an adult male as it radiated heat. It also twitched uncontrollably under every breath Shepard breathed near it. “Hm, benefits?” Shepard mumbled teasingly to mock Kaidan’s early comments over their lunch date before running the pointed edge of his tongue underneath the flesh from base to knob. Eyelids slowly closed on both men as the tongue continued to tantalize the twitching meat. It had to be wet first, as large as it was, or else the skin would catch at the corners of the commander’s mouth.

Licking the sides took a little more effort as a hand had to come up in order to hold the mass in place. While there, it also gave Kaidan a few slow and loving strokes which made his entire body shudder. Eventually, one of his own hands came to grab the black, short-cut spiked hair to pull and tug at as a means of encouragement. As the other man’s lips covered his tip, Kaidan’s own mouth parted a bit more to lick over the dryness caused by panting. His eyes were barely open as he watched Shepard’s face disappear and reappear beneath his curly tuff of pubic hair.

While he couldn’t confirm it from the angle, he imagined there was a slight dribble of clear saliva which ran down the corners of Shepard’s mouth and off his stubbled chin. He could, however, feel the sweat on the back of the man’s neck just below the cropped hair line and the moaning from the back of Shepard’s throat. When not filling his mouth entirely, Shepard would use his hand and the tip of his tongue to please Kaidan otherwise. The combination of the two, especially with any twisting motion made orally or manually near the swollen head, became entirely too much for the major to handle and muscle spasms triggered flashes of his biotic powers.

“John…I--,” Kaidan tried to warn, but erupted suddenly into warm, wet cavern instead. Rather being upset about it, the red and black eyes narrowed with arrogant victory as the sucking continued while swallowing the salty, warm flood before pulling off with a very audible pop. Upon standing, Shepard moved to grab a half empty bottle of purple liquid from the glass coffee table. His thumb popped the cap open before he took a swig. Swishing the drink around caused his cheeks to puff briefly as he rinsed the insides of them before swallowing it down.

“We need to work on our communication a little better,” he taunted before taking another quick gulp of the strong alcohol. While laughing softly, Kaidan had taken a seat at the edge of the bed and had begun to pull off his boots so that he could finally kick off the dropped pants and underwear.

“Probably,” he smiled as he was handed the bottle and took a sip as Shepard sat down to remove the rest of his clothes as well, but left the boxers on. The erection underneath the black fabric was prominent, even more so when it was standing directly in front of Kaidan’s face as Shepard took the bottle back. Topping off what was left, he peered down at his prey. If what he wanted wasn’t obvious enough, the playful thrusting of his hips forward in order to make the covered tip poke at Kaidan’s cheek and nose had made things very clear. Laughing still, the major finally complied as he tugged the front of the boxers down. “Alright, alright, I can take a hint though you’ll have to excuse me if I’m not as great as you are,” he jested even though part of him was actually very serious. “Hey, where did you learn how to be that good at it anyway?” Shepard raised one of his dark eyebrows at the question.

“Do you _really_ want to know?”

“…On second that, you know, maybe I don’t.”

“I didn’t think so,” Shepard laughed as he tossed the empty bottle into a trashcan on the far side of the room without it even having to circle the brim. The feel-good rush of liquor in their systems was already taking effect on both of the men and it mixed nicely with the warm and fuzzy feelings already there. In silliness, Kaidan gave Shepard’s exposed slit a lick to test out the merchandise. It was obvious he had never done this before, to which he would be forgiven for not being that skilled or very enthusiastic. What counted was his willingness to at least try and Shepard would make sure to give his unseasoned lover plenty of chances to practice. Still, it felt good. Kaidan was a quick learner and had a good example to follow. He slowly slid his tongue over the meat with his fingers being careful around the shaft as not to grab it too roughly. His eyes had even closed to crank up the level of sexiness a notch or two. What he couldn’t swallow down on his first try, he made up for in loving strokes and gentle kisses.

It didn’t take long for the playful mood to change into a heated blur of wanton lust. Shepard moved his hands up to finger comb and grip into the black and white waves of hair with his hips pushing back and forth slowly as Kaidan held onto his sides, kneading at the embedded nerves there which shot jolts of electricity throughout Shepard’s body. Moving away from the bones, they then slid behind to feel and cup the muscled cheeks back there in hunt for a soft place to spank. The first strike was rubbed in, but the second one wasn’t. He hissed in a mix of both pain and pleasure, but didn’t make any moves to stop the love taps or to pull away from them. The third strike was harder and louder than the first two and was followed by more massaging as Kaidan rubbed the sting away. An intense burn began to spread on the struck rear end and if the spanking wasn’t shocking enough, Shepard was grew even more surprised when Kaidan had flipped them over to place him onto his back against the mattress.

Looking up, the commander raised an eyebrow inquisitively, watching with a curious gaze as he was kissed down his smooth neck and past his bare torso, Kaidan stopping just underneath his dark, trimmed nether regions. As the now slippery erection twitched against his toned abs, Shepard decided that it was about time he spread his legs open. “So…how exactly…do I get to um…continue?” he was asked an honest, yet flustered question. Kaidan wanted so badly to push his way inside, but wasn’t really sure how to go about it. Of course, he knew the general idea as anyone who was able to hack into his extranet search results could tell you. It wasn’t all that complicated, was it?

“Medi-gel works.” Shepard’s response was prompt, accurate, and even a bit playful.

“Right…medi-gel. I think I read something about that.”

“Doing your homework, Major?”

“Ha…yeah,” Kaidan confessed with a blush returning to his face. “But you had to accept my confession first. Either that or get you good and wasted. Glad it was the first option, but you know, I was willing to try the other one too.”

“Lucky for both of us then, right? I’m a terrible lay when I’m drunk.” Snickering at the remark, Kaidan typed in a command onto his omni-tool.

“There,” he smiled. “Medi-gel on hand, so I’m just going to…yeah.” Making sure it wasn’t freezing-cold anymore before reaching down between the spread cheeks, he smeared the lubricant along the tight pucker. As an index finger pushed inside, going in up to the knuckle without much difficulty, Shepard grunted from pleasure. His sex throbbed against the skin of his abdomen as his eyes closed tightly. The finger was soon pulled out entirely, but pushed back inside along with a second digit. Both slid in and out from base knuckle to fingertip, curving along the natural path while scissoring the ring open and shut.

Biting down on his bottom lip, Shepard began to wiggle about on the bed. His hands gripped the rumpled sheets and blankets while his breathing became increasingly irregular. It was an arousing sight for Kaidan knowing that with just his fingers, he could get the galaxy’s greatest hero to pant like a bitch in heat. It wasn’t long before he was hard once again, stiff with anticipation. After pulling his fingers out, he repositioned himself up to be chest-to-chest with Shepard and took the commander’s pair of still shaking legs to place them at an angle on top of his shoulders to rest there. Head turned, his lips caressed over a kneecap as his hands moved to hold up the undersides of Shepard’s firm thighs. Sitting straight up upon his knees, he watched and made sure that his own erection, which had been eagerly pushing up against the slick opening, actually made it in. The first few attempts were failures by either accidently hotdogging Shepard’s cheeks or sliding up past the taint to nudge against the fuzzy sack.

Moving a hand down, Kaidan held himself steady as he gave a more forceful push. There was resistance, at first, before the flesh was forced to spread open. Closing his eyes once again, Shepard‘s upper body twisted to one side as he hissed. His continued hard-on, still lying on top of his stomach, twitched and stiffened even more so as his insides clamped down around Kaidan’s length. The squeeze caused Kaidan to hiss as well and to force out an unexpected moan. When finally nestled in, he leaned over to nudge his nose against the skin of Shepard’s neck and razor stubble of the turned away face in an attempt to get its attention. His mouth caught a heated kiss and Shepard’s turn to playfully lick the drying lips moist again as they smiled at each other. Kaidan returned the favor and tonging began to intensify from teasing flicks to passionate swirling as he pushed back and forth with his hips. The kissing soon stopped altogether only to breathe as his hands grabbed at the sheets for leverage with his face buried in Shepard’s neck as he continued to thrust and groan loudly. Shepard’s head tilted back as he too gasped while making a display of himself in whimpers and encouraging noises.

That was, until Kaidan turned him over entirely.

Facedown, Shepard’s cries were muffled by the pillows and had to force himself up for air after being mounted from behind. This time, the major’s heavy breathing and kisses were against the back of his neck and into an exposed ear. When not pressing him down into the bed, Kaidan either opted for kneading Shepard’s vulnerable rear or spanking the meaty parts on both cheeks until they turned equally rosy. “Dammit, Kaidan,” he grumbled in minor protest with weak attempts to shake the hands off.

“Shhh, I’m having fun.”

“I bet…Ah!” Shepard was suddenly cut off as he was hit again, but even the sharp pain felt amazing. Kaidan finally stopped his toying to lean his body over again and began to push in and out of Shepard’s buff frame once more. The poundings became quicker and more desperate, trying to reach a deeper depth with every thrust as their combined voices cried out. Orgasming a second time that night, Kaidan spread Shepard’s cheeks as to watch his load being emptied into Shepard’s hole before pulling out, wishing to God that he didn’t have to. Shepard’s sensitive backdoor pushed out the white fluid in a slow secretion when the blockage was removed and rolled over, surprising Kaidan as to just how sticky his groin was. It was hard to believe that the great Commander Shepard came so much from just penetration and was obviously embarrassed by it. “It’s…been a while for me, alright? Stop looking at me like that…” Feeling mighty proud of himself, Kaidan tried his best to be polite about the situation.

“Looking like what? I just…assumed I had more work to do…”

“Next time, you won’t be so lucky.” With that, Kaidan released a held-in laugh while moving to lie down on his side so that he could curl up against the other nude body.

“Is that a challenge?” Looking to each other, the question remained unanswered as the pair began to softly kiss once again. It was finally the end of an itch that had taken years to scratch, but with an uncertain future, who knew how much time they would have left?


	6. Access Denied

Kaidan rolled over while still asleep in the captain quarter’s bed, finding it uncomfortable to be in such a large bed by himself. His dreams were extremely vivid that night as memories of his first time with Shepard replayed themselves in his mind. A hand reached over to grab an unused white pillow as his sleeping face turned to breathe in the lingering scent of his lost love. As a tear rolled down a flushed cheek, it was wiped away by a caress hidden in shattered reflections and shadows. The touch was gentle and comforting, easing the tension in his face. 

His held-in breath let out slowly, but it caused the visually blurred figure to quickly pull away. Above, starlight from the glass ceiling twinkled brightly for a brief second. The light danced across the holographic cloaking just long enough to make out the silhouette of the stealthed intruder sitting on the mattress’s edge next to the major. Their shadow stretched across the floor before it spread over the Kaidan’s resting body as the ship changed directions. The visitor’s head turned to look towards door before deciding to leave the room as quietly as they came in. The opening and shutting noises of the automatic entryway may have been why the sleeper finally awoke.

Gasping, he sat up abruptly with his nude upper body exposed as he made an attempt to peer through the darkness, but the worn brown eyes had trouble adjusting to the dim glow of the fish tank. Even after forcing biotics through his pupils, there was nothing to see in the empty bedroom other than a hamster digging at the straw in its cage and colorful fish swimming in crystal waters.

The tingle on his cheek remained even after trying to rub it away and the dead space of the ship only made him even more uneasy. Standing away from the bed wearing nothing but his boxers, he stretched out his muscled back and followed it up with a few torso twists to help release the stress. Lastly, his neck and shoulders were rotated until the joints gave way with a few moderately loud pops. Moving to the closet, he reached inside to grab a shirt, but something stopped him. Stuffed in the back on a wire hanger was a worn black hoodie branded with a N7 logo and red and white stripes. His expression softened as he carefully removed it from storage.

There was a stronger scent here than what was left on the pillows. It was something which was inhaled deeply as the warm soft cloth was hugged to his bare chest. How many times did he scold Shepard for wearing this thing? It was entirely inappropriate to wear it to meetings and debriefings, but the commander never seemed to care. After careful consideration, Kaidan finally decided what to do with it. He pulled on a tight white t-shirt with hoodie on top. There were even holes in this damn thing. Some from just being worn too much for sure, but he was also pretty certain some of these were from being shot at though he didn’t seem to mind as Shepard’s musk completely engulfed him. Another deep breathe was taken before making an attempt to find a pair of pants. On the deck below, Kyo had curled up in a chair with his head resting on armored folded arms at the edge of a hospital bed where Shiro had been placed inside of the med bay. He wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep when Kaidan walked in. “Sergeant? Kyo! Wake up!”

“Huh? What?” Opening his eyes as his head slowly rose, Kyo stared with a child-like expression upon his face. Still groggy, he even stopped to rub his eyes as he yawned loudly.

“Any changes?” Kaidan asked, looking down at both Shiro and Kyo from where he was standing. The doctor had been running tests on comatose patient with several machines, but retired some time ago to get some rest long before Kyo had fallen asleep. Looking to the unconscious man in front of him, the sergeant didn’t see any noticeable differences. With a soft yawn, Karin Chakwas emerged from her new bed chambers made up where EDI’s AI core was still located since a cozy cot worked perfectly in the little room. After checking the test machines, she took out a datapad, typing lazily away until something seemed to catch her interest.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you who this is, Major.” Folding his arms over his chest, Kaidan looked onward.

“Why not? No records?” he asked. “Maybe he was a slave or runaway? Not every colony documents births correctly. Some are real backwater, you know?”

“Actually, no,” she answered while continuing to type at her pad. “There are records, but they have been wiped clean. This isn’t all Cerberus’s doing either. The deletions have come from all over the place.”

“What? That can’t be right. Run it again.” But he took the pad from her before she could get started so he could attempt to access the files on his own.

“Unlock files A dash four-eight-seven F through A dash four-eight-nine Q. Spectre authority, Alenko, Kaidan.” The digital voice chimed in to acknowledge the command.

_Spectre status recognized._

_Accessing data files._

_Access denied_.

“Denied?” Kaidan was actually surprised about that. “On whose authority?”

_Classified_.

After a prompt response, the search program shut itself down. “There’s something else, Major.” Staring at the pad, the frustrated biotic finally moved his eyes up to look towards Karin.

“Yes, Doctor?”

“Our mystery man here is not in a coma.”

“Not in a coma?” Another surprise. “What’s he doing then? Faking it?”

“Do you remember when you were attacked by the Collectors, Kaidan? How they used those nasty bugs for some sort of stasis field which left you fully aware and unable to move? Because I surely do.”

“Are you telling me that he’s what? Paralyzed?” In agreement, she nodded.

“Yes, I believe Cerberus got a hold of how to make a similar chemical, highly modified by the looks of it.” She carefully reached over to pluck her pad away from the major’s hand so she could type out what she had meant to originally show him. After a few keystrokes, it was turned over so he could see the diagram of a human figure marked with injection points. “They may have used Mordin’s work in an attempt to make their own soldiers immune, but it looks like this one was being kept for some reason. Perhaps he was the control subject? I’m not exactly sure why they would put all this money into these implants and then make his body useless.” Kaidan sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose trying to make sense of it all.

“A defector, maybe? He looks like he’d be nasty to have as an enemy.”

“Perhaps, but I would advise against awaking him. He could also be the very definition of a sleeper agent,” Karin warned. “I ran some scans on the implants, but didn’t get much I’m afraid. They are similar to Shepard’s, but far more complex and every time I try to run a more advanced scan, my equipment seems to fail.”

“He’s blocking your access. I told you already that,” Kyo said as stood to force himself into the conversation. “He doesn’t want you to know too much, but he is helping us. We should wake him if we can so he can tell us what’s going on himself.” Looking to the sergeant, Kaidan gave an exasperated sigh.

“Freeing him from stasis might be the plan so he can take us all out. He could be another Kai Leng for all we know and I…”

“Who the _hell_ is Kai Leng?”

“He’s was a bastard of a Cerberus Agent who killed a lot of good people before Shepard put him down. If Miranda was here, she could explain this a lot better…” There was a pause as an idea sparked. “Joker? Do you read me?

“Loud and clear, Major.”

“Try to patch us through to Miranda Lawson. As ex-Cerberus, she owes us more than a few favors.”

“Miranda, Major? What’s she got to do with anything?” Joker questioned in his usual confusion mixed in with minor skepticism.

“She may be able to tell us more on this zombie we’ve got back here.”

“Sure thing, but you might want to ask Liara too. She’s got that whole Shadow Broker thing down, right? We’re on approach to Ilium now. ETA ten minutes.”

“Roger that. Kyo, grab your friend there and come with me.” Kyo eyed Shiro and audibly groaned.

“Alright buddy, time to go. Let’s get you dressed first. I know Ilium is pretty shady, but you gotta put on some pants at least.” Karin giggled at the joke and offered to help dress the mostly nude young man only being covered by a thin white sheet and his impossibly long hair as Kaidan turned to leave.

“It looks good on you, by the way. Shepard’s old coat,” she said before the major walked out. He paused at the acknowledgement, but didn’t to look in her direction as he spoke.

“I plan on giving it back to him when I see him again.”

“Be sure to take care of it then. It may have a few holes, but he always refused to get a new one.”

“Will do.” The automatic doors opened and closed as he left the room to head towards the docking bay. There was hardly a need to go fully armored into the city and attract unwanted attention, even though Kyo refused to change into the basic uniform himself. On his back, Shiro was also in medium armor with his face covered by a flexible full head mask.

“Docking at Ilium now, Major. Liara will meet you at her new office. Updating nav points.”

“Roger that, Joker.” As the cabin pressurized and doors unlocked, Kaidan tapped away at this omni-tool. He hadn’t spoken with Liara in quite some time, not since their failed attempts to recover Shepard’s body from both the Citadel and London. There were plenty of problems back then as they both cared deeply about their commander in similar ways while being rather jealous of one another. She had always found Shepard attractive with her love for him never being strictly platonic. Kaidan had known this ever since they rescued her the first time and he saw that same spark in her eyes while together on Mars.

Kyo remained his ever neutral self and was seemingly unimpressed by Ilium despite its massive rebuilding since the Reaper attack. A lot of credits ran through this planet’s blood, even more so after it was nearly destroyed. If you wanted to escape the aftermath of war, Illium was full of ways to forget your troubles.


	7. Doctor Liara T'Soni

“I see this place hasn’t changed much,” Kyo spoke in passing while the three of them walked through the main thoroughfare.

“So, you’ve been here before?” Kaidan asked, assuming that the sergeant was even speaking to him in the first place and not to Shiro, for once. Looking up towards him, he was nodded at briefly while keeping a respectable distance in their stroll.

“Sure, but not since the Reapers.”

“You don’t look like the stockbroker type to me. I’m impressed that…”

“I did a few concerts here,” he was corrected in a tone which made him realize how bringing up that sort of thing in the first place was probably a bad idea, so instead tried to focus on walking around the large shopping mall without getting lost or too distracted by the hustle of the marketplace. According to the map, they had to take a shuttle over to the Business District in order to make it to a small cluster of towers in the process of being rebuilt. Local gossip suggested they were taken out in some sort of terrorist attack rather than the Reaper destroying them, but no one wanted to give up any information as to who and why. Walking into the main building amongst the construction prompted soothing office music to play overhead followed by a gentle smile from a lavender Asari receptionist.

“Major Alenko…and company, I presume?” she asked, standing up from her seat behind a glass desk. Giving a nod, Kaidan stood by the door with his hands tucked away in his jacket’s pockets.

“Yes, I have an appointment with Doctor T’soni.”

“She’s expecting you and I’ll just make a few guests codes for the elevator for your…friends?” she questioned while staring directly at Kyo and the body on his back. “Alright, please take the opened doors to your left and have a wonderful day.”

“Thank you,” Kaidan nodded politely. “Come on, Sergeant. Double time.” Kyo also gave a nod to the woman knowing just how weird he looked carrying Shiro around like this. Fortunately, this elevator was at least large enough for the three humans, unlike the one on the Jupiter base. The music from the hallway was also louder here and was hummed along to until they reached the top.

Kaidan no longer seemed to mind the random singing anymore, mostly because his thoughts were elsewhere. Specifically, he was dreading this meeting entirely too much to care how well his squad mate carried a tune. The pleasant noise stopped once a ding echoed off the metal walls as the doors slid open and was replaced by Liara’s shouting. “Tell that louse if he enjoys living to not hide money from me again! I’ll do worse than bankrupt that fool!” After her threats over the phone, she hung up with a sigh as she rubbed her forehead. When her eyes looked up and saw that she had company, she stood from her desk with a forced smile.

It was easy to see how this uneasy tension between Kaidan and herself was extremely mutual. “Hello again, Major. It’s good to see you after all this time.”

“Likewise, Liara.” Even a complete stranger could feel the weight between the two.

“When you contacted me, I was surprised. I didn’t expect to hear from you…after that.” She remained standing at her desk as Kaidan walked up with Kyo and Shiro close behind, but the abrupt stop less than a half a meter away made the other two males nearly crash into his backside.

“I’m in need of certain resources and you’re the best at obtaining information no one else can seem to get their hands on. This is strictly a… professional call.” Hands went back into their pockets as he tried his best to keep both a physical and emotional distance.

“Yes, of course Major and if it’s for Shepard, I…well. I suppose we’d all do some crazy things for that man,” she smirked. “Is this the Cerberus Agent…and is he one as well?” By he, Liara meant the singer.

“I’m with the Alliance, mam. Just the pack mule in most cases and watchdog of my friend here.”

“Could you place him down on the sofa for me and remove the helmet? Let me see if I can get match any scans with my current database.” While the dead weight was tossed onto the luxurious white and gold office couch, there was some extra care given to make sure that Shiro would be comfortable under normal circumstances before removing the helmet and placing it onto the floor. Once it was off, Kyo brushed away the silky-straight, overgrown white bangs and pulled the long ponytail off to the side. Liara watched with great interest, taking mental notes of the agent’s appearance. Despite the excessive implants all over his body, the only scars found were on the young man’s lips, reminiscent of a pair of fangs. “This is strange. For the amount of surgery that had to be done here, there isn’t any damage to the skin and the tissue around the implants are completely healed.”

“Shepard’s face was healed as well, so why is it strange?” Kaidan asked with a raised eyebrow while leaning against the wall, arms crossed at a distance from the doctor and the two other men.

“Yes, but you with the correct imaging, you can still at least see the underlying scar tissue. But here…there isn’t any and these implants are highly advanced. Customized to the point where I cannot find a make or model number.

“Much like Jack’s or Kai Leng?”

“More so…And you found him on Mars? I was there when Cerberus attacked. If they had an outpost nearby, that would explain how they got there so fast.”

“Yes,” Kyo answered. “We intercepted a SOS signal from some base. The mission wiped out my team with traps and hazards. There were doors rigged to explode and some droids still on alert. I was the only one that made it out alive.” There was a pause as he looked towards his mysterious ‘friend’ with a smile. “He saved me.”

“Saved you? But he’s…in a coma,” Liara looked up as she cocked her head in confusion.

“Stasis, actually,” Kaidan interjected. “He seems to be aware and is able to interface directly with electronics. Apparently, Kyo believes he actually activated the emergency systems when rescued and uploaded a ton of Cerberus data to the Alliance. Stuff about me, Shepard, and even you, Liara. Whatever Cerberus had in their databanks is being decrypted now.”

“I see. That is disturbing, but I still can’t seem to get a reading on…” In midsentence, her arm lit up in a frenzy as her tool spoke.

_Scanning. Scanning._

_Subject found: Doctor Liara T’soni._

_Access granted._

“What in the…?” The omni-tool began to flash as several images and other files downloaded. She stared in disbelief, at first, looking to Shiro before back at her screen. The pictures and data files were in regards to the Crucible and other Reaper-based weapons she seemed to recognize. The final stream was that of what looked to be a blurred medical tank, similar to the one Shiro was found in, with quite a few formulas and equations. Once the download was completed, the light screen turned itself off.

“By the Goddess, that was…” Kyo just sighed, running a hand through his black tuffed hair.

“Yeah, he does that.”


	8. Hunter

It was Liara’s turn to be amazed by the information which flooded her omni- tool while Kyo and Kaidan waited for her fascination to fade. With a bewildered look upon her face, she stared speechlessly at the two men before realizing how foolish her gapping mouth appeared. Furrowing the drawn-on eyebrows, she began to concentrate instead on attempting to hack the encrypted files. Even with her newly acquired skills, she still only scratched the surface and became frustrated at the end results. The images she did manage to pull up at least lowered Kaidan’s defenses as he leaned over to take a closer look. “Is that…what I think it is?” he asked, pointing an index finger at the digital screen. Kyo was interested as well, moving over to see what they were talking about and expressed a look of remembrance.

“That’s the thing I found Shiro in,” he stated as his own finger pointed out certain features. “All those wires and tubes were everywhere, but the one he was in was filled with fluid.”

“Are you sure?” the major asked, becoming weary after being firmly nodded at.

“What is it?” Liara asked as she did not know Kaidan to fear easily. “What’s wrong?”

“You don’t remember? Well, I guess you weren’t down there,” he began as his fingers ran through the front of his already pushed back hair. “Legion put Shepard in a tube like that to interface directly with the Geth Consensus. I think that’s the same kind of pod.” Pointing at the screen, the doctor’s expression also changed.

“That’s right,” she spoke while trying to remember the finer details. “The Geth improved on Project: Overload for direct neural interface with virtual intelligence. I wasn’t with Shepard when he freed that poor man from the original project, but his descriptions were…gruesome.” Tapping at her screen, it turned idly off as a hacking program continued to run in the background. “It’s possible that they had more than one test going on. Perhaps this one was done afterwards…or before? It at least explains the interfacing with our omni-tools and being able to control the systems on Mars base.” There was a pause as she looked at the sleeping man on her sofa. “I would hate to jump to conclusions about this…person, but Shepard said the one he encountered was driven insane…” Kaidan also took a moment to consider this option as well.

“…But he came out fine.”

“True enough, but I’m more concerned about this formula.” Tapping at her screen on again in order to pull up a rather detailed equation, Liara skimmed through the chemical expressions. Kaidan also looked over it, but wasn’t really sure what it meant as he was neither a scientist nor a mathematician.

“Hm, Doctor Chakwas said that he’s in a paralytic stasis similar to what the seeker bugs injected me with. Do you think this is what Cerberus used?” he asked, but was shrugged at.

“It’s possible, this isn’t my specialty, but these are very simplified plans…and…”

“And?”

“And I have one of these containment units in my basement.”

“…You have what in your what now?” Cracking a knowing smile, Liara moved back to her desk to sit back down in her office chair. After interlacing her fingers, she used her hands as a chin rest before speaking again.

“I’ve managed to salvage quite a bit of abandoned technology for research purposes and those willing to pay a marketable price,” she bragged. “With these plans, I could synthesize the formula listed.”

“And that would wake him up?” Kyo’s questioned with interest. He seemed happy about it, if not borderline excited. “Hear that, Shiro? We’re gonna get you moving again!” However, Kaidan simply groaned.

“We don’t know if that’s safe yet. Besides, I can’t ask Dr. T’soni for that kind of help.” Kyo shot a prompt ‘ _what the fuck?_ ’ look towards him as Liara spoke up in her own defense before the young singer managed to get a word out.

“If it’s for Shepard, we should at least try, Kaidan. I’ll even waive my fees.”

“I agree with Liara. We should at least try, Kaidan,” Kyo repeated.

“Her name is Dr. T’soni…and that’s Major Alenko to you, Sergeant. “ As Kyo and Kaidan stared each other down, Liara released a small laugh.

“Please, Liara is fine and it appears you’ve been outvoted, _Major_.” She made sure to add that extra tease to her voice when calling out his rank.

“Outvoted? This isn’t a democracy!” the biotic exclaimed, clearly flustered from being teamed up against. “As curious as I am, I still don’t quite trust this…whatever he is. All we know for sure is that he was worth wild to keep around unharmed, yet dangerous enough for Cerberus to lock away. Am I the only one who remembers what the Illusive Man was doing to his troops in the end? They were practically husks themselves!” Standing up, Liara walked up to him and caressed the bearded face with a white-gloved hand. There was tension again as he stiffened up, locking onto her big, blue eyes.

“Please, if this can help us find Shepard,” she cooed to him sweetly, but was looked away from as his bushy eyebrows slowly lowered themselves in conflict. Reaching up, his fingers briefly lingered upon her touch before pushing it away entirely.

“Fine.” After another forced smile, she nodded and took a step back.

“Come, we’ll use my private elevator. It’s over here.” Watching her back, Kaidan grumbled under his breath as he followed to stand next to her just behind the large desk. Kyo watched the awkward pair shuffle around to keep their distance from one another in such a small space before gathering up Shiro in order to carry him over as well. Once everyone was in place, Liara reached under the tabletop to hit a secluded button. Once pressed, it began the descent into the lower levels by using an otherwise hidden built-in platform. The drop was fast and surprisingly deep. The hole above them closed overhead which activated lights along the tunnel’s walls as not to be in total darkness. Once they neared the ground, the speed of the drop slowed. This activated lights embedded into the walls and new ceiling to illuminate the room. The cave-like basement had crates everywhere, all marked with various hazard symbols and warnings labels. “Follow me.”

The humans looked at each other before turning to the asari. Along the walls were lines of mechs and various pieces of Reaper tech. What caught Kyo’s attention was the line of Geth primes stationed up like giant red dominos. “Good thing you can’t see how creepy this place is,” he whispered to his mute friend.

“Are you sure this stuff is safe?” Kaidan posed his question in a suspicious manner. “Reaper tech is still dangerous…”

“There are shields in place based on Dr. Bryson’s improvements. They have been inert since the crucible was activated anyway. Ah, here we are.” Liara stopped in front of a dusty human-sized tank and moved to a side control panel. From flipping a few switches, she turned the power on. Dozens of lights flicked in succession down lines of tubing and wires.

“This…isn’t what I saw at the Geth base,” Kaidan said in both equal relief and disappointment.

“But it’s what Shiro was in. I’d remember that thing anywhere,” Kyo stated afterward.

“I see,” Liara mumbled as she typed at her omni-tool again. “So, I was wrong then? This is Cerberus tech after all?” The young singer nodded as he slowly walked up to it. With a hiss from the release of built-up cold pressure, the front panel opened as if it recognized who was standing in front of it.

“Alright, here goes nothing,” he smiled as everyone else took several steps away as Shiro was fitted inside. After taking a few steps back as well, the panel closed itself and began to fill up with a clear-green liquid. Liara stood with awe for a moment before coming to her senses and begin to insert the equation from her tool into the panel. As the formula uploaded, different fluids from the connecting tubes deposited their contents into the closed capsule until the mixture was blood-red in color. Kaidan watched with some curiosity, but eventually turned away while shaking his head to how much of a bad idea this was. As he wandered off, his own omni-tool began to beep with an incoming message.

“Kaidan here,” he answered as he kept his voice low.

“Major? It’s Joker. Man, getting a signal to you has been rough. Where the heck are ya?”

“Underground with a lot of tech here likely causing interference. What’s up?”

“Yeah, well you know how you told me to get a hold of Miranda?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I told her about our mysterious body and she seemed freaked out. Wanted me to warn you not to wake the guy up and that she was headed to your location.” The major looked to the nearly full tube.

“…Did she say why?”

“Just something about a biotic hunter and Cerberus’s _other_ secret project? I don’t know. She was flippin’ out with that funny accent of hers.”

“There. That should do it,” Liara’s voice interrupted Kaidan’s call.

“Oh no.” Pulling out his side arm, he held the pistol steadily towards the tank. “Step away from him, Kyo. He’s dangerous!” But the sergeant refused, using himself to shield the tank instead.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked as the glass door opened to release the flood of chemicals which rushed over his armored feet. Once again, Shiro’s body started to fall out and ignoring his orders, Kyo hurried over to catch the young unconscious man just like before. Much like Mars, there wasn’t any sign of consciousness yet again. “Come on! Wake up!”

“I said step aw—,” but Kaidan’s warning was muted by the sound of an explosion above which caused the entire cavern to shake. Liara’s arm lit up with multiple alerts from the attack and looking in the distance, she narrowed her eyes towards the glowing female figure walking towards them.

“You could have knocked, Miranda!” she yelled, hands upon her hips. Stepping into the light, the curvy ex-Cerberus agent walked forward as her heels clicked lightly against the stone floor. Her weapon was also drawn, pointed directly at Shiro and indirectly at Kyo. He also had his pistol drawn, creating an interesting stand-off as Kaidan had turned on Miranda, Miranda on Shiro and Kyo, and Kyo on both his superior and the mysterious woman. The only one who wasn’t currently armed was the irritated asari, still upset about the break-in.

“Step away from that creature,” Miranda ordered as she ignored the major and his gun entirely. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.” Her fiery gaze glared at the still passed out, white-haired male being protected by the N7 paladin.

“Shove it up your ass, lady,” was the immediate response to her demands.

“Stand down, Miranda. I can handle this,” Kaidan firmly responded with his weapon still trained on her movements.

“Handle this?” she scoffed. “You have NO idea who that is. We kept him locked up for a reason!  The hunter, he…” A brown pair of eyelids began to flutter their white eyelashes and a groan came from the back of Shiro’s throat. The dim emerald eyes slowly came to focus themselves as he awoke and turned to look at his savior. Kyo dropped his guard in order to help the waking man stand and moved quickly to catch him when Shiro stumbled with his still numb body. “No!” Miranda cried out. “It’s too late!”


	9. Project: Lazarus

Miranda’s biotic aura intensified as she revved her right arm back with large, pulsating sphere manifested in her palm. Grunting, she tossed it with all her might. Pushing Shiro aside, Kyo dropped to a knee and positioned the large, orange digital shield, mounting it to the ground in an attempt to block the attack. “It won’t be that easy!” she yelled, her accent was heavy from physical strain. Controlling the orb’s direction, it curved to come in at an angle. Time slowed for the paladin, who wasn’t fast enough to redeploy the barrier before it would hit the one he was trying to protect. Instead, he could only watch as Shiro slowly looked up as the fiery, white ball drew closer.

The green eyes reflected brightly from the oncoming hue, though did not appear frightened. White eyebrows furrowed in annoyance as pupils dilated in the bright light as his irises intensifyed into a neon glow. Slowing putting a hand up, a gloved open palm caught the biotic mass as if it were a mere firefly. Upon impact, it exploded and nearly knocked Kyo onto his rear. The shield he was attempting to create shattered from the blast and shorted out his omni-tool momentarily.  As the blinding flare dimmed, he squinted to see Miranda’s best attack had not only been captured, but was also being absorbed.

Blue swirls surrounded Shiro’s body as he transformed them into a perfected second layer of energy, matching his eyes in color. Tightening the same hand which caught the sphere into a fist, his gaze turned to the woman who had bothered him with this mess in the first place. While smirking, it was pointed in her direction as the stolen power recollected. The magnitude, however, was highly amplified in both intensity and potency. If Miranda had sent over a cannon ball for her biotic attack, Shiro was about to retaliate with the equivalent of an AA gun. “No!” Kyo yelled as he grabbed the held out arm and turned it to the air. “Stop! What are you doing?”

Shiro stood stunned, immediately dispersing his field as he was told. “…Apologies.” His accent was strange. It was a mix of old world BBC reruns typical to the current season of _MI-55_ or _Dr. Where and Intergalactic Friends_.

Kaidan, Liara, and Miranda remained silent from the situation of both sleeper agent’s abilities and Kyo’s handling of him. Leaning over from exhaustion, Shiro slowly collapsed against his guardian as he was still exhausted from the rude awakening. The sergeant scrambled to catch him before another fall and looked to Kaidan with concern, but the other biotic was too distracted to notice. He had never seen such power manipulated so easily before and hurried to check on Miranda. She stood there, shaking a bit before being spoken too.

“Are you alright?” she was asked. She turned to slowly nod. “Let’s get back to the ship and sort this out.”

Liara also nodded in agreement, following as Kyo assisted his newly awoken friend. It was on the table in the med bay where Shiro was being examined by Dr. Chakwas for a second time. The scans being taken were no longer blocked, but she still didn’t quite know what to make of the readings. Sitting in a pulled up chair close by, Kyo was under heavy watch by both the shadow broker and the major as Miranda sat on the opposite bed as her eyes fixated on the medical images. As the doctor completed her work, she stepped away to give Shiro space to sit back up. He looked to his left, relieved to see Kyo before the dark, jade eyes focused on the two standing biotics looming him. Kaidan repositioned himself closer while keeping his arms crossed and stare narrowly fixated.

“Who are you?” he asked. The question was simple enough and was something that was on everyone’s mind. The agent redirected his gaze to the bed as he tried to figure out a way to answer it.

“I,” he paused having to cough several times to clear the unused throat and peered over to Kyo again. “…I prefer Shiro, though who I am isn’t of any importance right now.”

“Fine, then _what_ are you?” Kaidan changed his question with no small amount of irritation. “Miranda ID’ed you as Ex-Cerberus and the lab we found you in…”

“That doesn’t matter either. You want to know if I can help you find Shepard and the answer is yes.”

“Straight to the point, then?” Kaidan uncrossed his arms and leaned over. “Fine by me, but if you’re messing around, I’ll toss you out the airlock first chance I get. Now, tell me where Shepard is.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t know where, exactly. I only know he’s alive and I can help you find him.”

“Don’t trust him,” Miranda protested from her seat. “He only wants revenge and to likely kill Shepard if given the chance. He was… used for Project: Lazarus.” A nasty glare shot in her directly from Shiro made her visually flinch.

“Is that true?” Kaidan asked while thumbing his sidearm.

“Yes, I was part of his…remodeling,” he was answered plainly. “But I want to save him.”

“So, she’s lying?”

“Misinformed.”

“On?” Sighing, the white- haired male realized no matter how many short answers he gave, it would never be enough to satisfy this man’s insistent line of questioning. Moving to stand, he gratefully used Kyo as a crutch despite only knowing each other for all of five minutes as a bond had already formed between the two. The singer doted over him while the agent’s cold-shoulder attitude gave way to a warm sense of acknowledgement and thankful smiles. Once on his own two feet, he looked at Kaidan without that same sense of kindness.

“Miranda only knows what the Illusive Man told her and what data she had access to.” He stopped to brush back the long strands of overgrown sliver hair from the dark- skinned face. “While it’s true that I was the…base for Lazarus and the technology I have embedded on me did bring Shepard back to life, it only worked because…” There was a pause as he came to realize what he was saying and stopped himself.

“Because…?” Kaidan asked while trying to both believe what he was being told as well as process all the new information, but Shiro frowned as he gathered his thoughts.

“…Because…I wasn’t forced to do it,” he finally spoke up again while closing his eyes. “I volunteered.” Kaidan’s eyes widened in disbelief as did Liara’s. In fact, the only one who didn’t seem to be surprised was Kyo.

“Why…?” Kaidan hesitated to ask as he took a step forward, getting a better look at the face which stood nearly at the same height as his own. “Why would you do that?” This made Kyo look even smaller as he was the shortest of the three.

“What does it matter?” he asked as he wedged himself between the two biotics.

“It matters to me!” Kaidan growled. “Why would a total stranger risk his life with Cerberus to help Shepard?! It doesn’t make any sense!”

“…I’m no stranger,” Shiro muttered, though loud enough to be heard. “Besides, the Collectors needed to be stopped and only Shepard could do that. He stopped them and the Reapers. If you want him back, you’ll have to help me. His implants are tied with mine, but I can’t get a fix on the signal. He’s being stubborn…I mean…They are. The implants,” he corrected suspiciously enough and changed the subject away from the lost commander. “I’m going to need something extraordinary to boost a tracking program in order to pinpoint his current location.” Liara forced herself into the conversation in frustration.

“And how to you propose we do that? We don’t even know who or _what_ you are!” Shiro turned his gaze to her.

“I’m…simply someone who owes Shepard a great debt, which can be said for most of the galaxy,” he smiled. “And I need to go to Rannoch and interface with the Geth technology still on the planet. There are many hubs with still working signal boosters meant to transmit Geth programs at high speeds into deep space.”

“But the Geth are dead,” Kyo said as he moved closer to his friend’s side. “That EMP took out all synthetics, Reapers and the rest.”

“Doesn’t mean what they built is broken necessarily, only powered down. The quarians can help us locate a hub that is still intact and assessable.” Kaidan continued his strong lingering look of mistrust, however the sigh which escaped from his lips was just enough for the bushy black eyebrows to relax.

What choice did he have at this point?

 So far, this entire runaround was to awaken this potentially deadly ex-Cerberus agent with off-the-charts biotic powers, who also had the unexplained ability to both track Shepard’s location and interface directly with VI programs.

“Fine. Joker?”

“Yes, Major?”

“Set a course for Rannoch. Try to call Tali before we reach the destination.”

“Aye, aye.”

“As for you…” Shiro looked away from Kyo just long enough to acknowledge who was speaking to him. There was physically biting of his bottom lip as Kaidan held in a wave of ranting.

“Just…stick with him. Sergeant, don’t let him out of your sight.”

“Sure thing,” Kyo shrugged before giving a smile to his newest partner. “Come on . I’ll show you to our quarters.” Turning back to his friend, Shiro gave a nod and followed behind as he was led out by his hand. His gaze met Kaidan’s piercing stare only briefly in passing before neither one of them could stand looking at each other.  Everyone had split off into pairs in some way or another. Vega and Cortez remained in the shuttle bay and armory, while the quarian siblings found a familiar refuge in the engine room. Joker and his bottle of scotch settled in for the long trip towards Rannoch in the cockpit. The last human spectre himself headed back to the captain’s suite with Liara following closely behind as Kyo and Shiro headed to the crew quarters.


	10. Intruder

Inside the bunk-bedded room, Kyo tossed his helmet onto a bottom mattress in the far back before starting the process of finally taking off the rest of his armor. It was rather unique looking with mechanically-jointed combat boots and a candy shine coat of dark crimson paint. Underneath the chest piece, he wore a skintight black t-shirt which proved he wasn’t mostly made up of bulky plating. While slim, he was still surprisingly athletic for someone who wasn’t in the military since before the invasion. Leaving his shirt and boxers on, he hung his guns on a rack near the door. There were two of them; the first being a scope-modified N7 Paladin pistol which came standard with the N7 Paladin armor set. The second was a N7 Hurricane submachine gun with spare clips. Shiro took a special interest in the scoped pistol, not taking his savior for a sharpshooter.

“We can head down to the armory if you need to be outfitted for combat. I…uh…just sort of used whatever was lying around to dress you. Beats being naked, right?” Kyo laughed a bit as he sat down to inspect his charge as he took a hand to pull the man closer. Stumbling a bit as he walked forward, the agent wasn’t sure what to make of the situation.

“I don’t wear heavy armor usually,” he commented while looking down into the prying eyes.

“Maybe change is good? You don’t really want people to recognize you, right? You have a hard face to forget.” While it sounded cruel, Shiro understood was meant. Pulling his fingers away, he tugged at his overgrown ponytail.

“Not many people have seen my face since I joined Cerberus…and my hair was shorter. “ Kyo just snickered, moving over as he was sat down next to.

“Well, you’re not with Cerberus anymore. Those bastards…”

“Yes, I was linked to the mainframe when they turned as they did, but couldn’t do much to stop it once the Reapers invaded. You really saved my life back there”

“I…did lose my team. They were good men, but if you can find Shepard…” He looked to Shiro and sighed, feeling as if he was placing blame. “You were worth saving,” a smile was given along with a friendly shoulder pat. “But we should rest up for Rannoch. You’re stumbling around like a baby deer still.” The joke made the agent laugh and Kyo stood to move his things to the top bunk. “Rest here. If you need me, I’ll be, you know, up there.” He gave a playful point upward before scrambling into the bed. In the captain’s quarters, Kaidan tried his best to avoid Liara, who insisted on following him.

“What do you want, T’Soni?” He turned to stop her just outside of the door with his body blocking the entrance. Surprised, the blue broker gathered her words carefully.

“I…just wanted to speak in private. That’s all, Kaidan. I assure you.” She caught onto being glared at, but the major seemed too tired to fight her.

“Fine…” There was a grumble from the man as he shifted away to let her inside. As the door closed on its own behind them, she paused for a minute to watch Shepard’s old jacket being removed and tossed to the sofa. A teasing giggle arose from her throat as she shook her head.

“You really have picked up his bad habits, haven’t you?”

“And you’re treading on thin ice with memories you shouldn’t have. What do you want?” Looking hurt, she tried not to get emotional with a sigh.

“Not every memory I have of Shepard came from you, Kaidan.” Another mean stare focused upon her face.

“The fact is that you shouldn’t have _any_ of my memories to begin with, but we’re not going to talk about that. Again, what do you want?”

“I wanted to talk to you about our mysterious guest,” she spoke slowly. “I ran some readings that I thought you would like to know about; cross-referenced some of my broker files with any Cerberus agents referred to as _Hunter_.” Pulling up her omni-tool screen, it was given a few taps. “It looks like it’s a term that has been used for nearly twenty years now. My guess is that there have been several of these so-called hunters based on the age of the one we have. Killed in action, maybe? Or retired?”

“We all know how you _retire_ from Cerberus,” Kaidan said as he took a seat at the corner desk in the room to do some work on the terminal there. He was intentionally looking for something to occupy both his hands and eyes as Liara silently took notice to being avoided before speaking again.

“Yes, it’s possible that the new hunters would kill the former ones as they are experts  at tracking down Cerberus defectors. Scans show heavy modification on even a genetic level and it seems that his appearance may be due to his biotic nature. Perhaps it’s a form of albinism? Loss of pigmentation in the hair and eyes, yet he retains his natural skin tone. We have similar variations in both asari and humans. But humans are the ones who require heavy modification to even use biotic powers.” Kaidan looked up, annoyed at her dismissive tone about human biotics.

“Yes, I get that he’s a freak, Liara. Is there anything useful?”

“No,” she shook her head. “Sadly, even my data is very incomplete. Hardly anyone who may have seen him is left alive. He’s very close to a male version of the phantoms we’ve encountered; possibly predating Kai Leng himself. Perhaps they were even built to his standard.”

“But the phantoms were saw were zombies and Kai Leng was a loyal dick, so why leave his mind intact?”

“They only recently did that to their own agents, Kaidan. Otherwise, many were like Miranda; working independently on orders. Also, his ability to interface with machines is…”

“Creepy?”

“I was going to say fascinating.”

“Creepy is a better way to put it and it’s not like he’s offering any sort of explanation. Forcing one out of him might hinder our search.”

“Agreed…” The silence which overcame them was suffocating as Kaidan continued to look at his monitor.

“Well, I’m going to get some shut eye and you should do the same.”

“…Right.” Turning to leave, Liara gave a second chance glace behind herself to see if there was even a hint at wanting her to stay, but to no surprise, there was not. Her hopeful expression faded and she left without another word. The major let out a grateful sigh afterward as he leaned back in his chair. Standing, he removed his t-shirt and tossed it on top of the jacket. He really had picked up more than one of Shepard’s messy habits it seemed, as he was the originally the one who was always picking up thrown about datapads, clothing, and random empty bottles or food cartons. Resisting the urge to go hang up both the jacket and shirt, he decided to belly flop onto the mattress instead and curled around an armful of pillows to sleep.

The lights dimmed on their own after a period of non-activity from the room. Kaidan had quickly passed out, his face half-buried into a white pillow while on his side, still wearing pants and socks. Sometime after hitting the sack, his body subconsciously kicked off the militant boots and wrapped up like a burrito in the middle of the bed. He didn’t even hear the doors opening and closing as someone else walked in. The messy dark hair shifted as a pair of invisible fingers ran through the curly locks and down an exposed sideburn. The short dark bush of a beard gently bristled they slid down his cheek. The tingles caused Kaidan to shift in his sleep and the hand pulled away, staying at a distance before hesitantly reaching down again.

Suddenly, an arm shot up and grabbed the unseen wrist. The stealthed body was thrown onto the bed, pinned down with both physical and biotic force. It struggled at first, but stopped as it seemed to stare up . “Who are you?!” the angry major yelled, but there was no answer. The body wiggled again, but still couldn’t break the hold. “Answer me!”

“…Kaidan,” the figure spoke, causing the major to freeze as he instantly recognized the muffled voice. Seizing an opportunity, the captive broke an arm free to cause a blinding, white flash.

“Argh!” the biotic screamed and covered his eyes. When light cleared, he was still on the bed and beneath him, still pinned by his thighs, was Shepard.

“…What the?”

“Can I get up now?” The commander grinned as he was being sat upon. “Or not, you know. That works too.”

“…Am I dreaming?”

“Probably.”


	11. Dreams (NSFW)

Probably wasn’t the answer Kaidan was looking for, but he had to assume it was better than no answer at all. Still, he couldn’t help but feel that dreams weren’t supposed to be like this. He was fairly certain he had grabbed whoever walked into his room in the real world and felt the struggle of this person underneath his grasp, followed by a sharp headache shortly after being caught in a flash bang grenade. Of course, the sensible side of him also knew how L2 implants caused frequent migraines with pain exceeding the body’s limitations leading to blackouts, panic attacks, and even rather vivid hallucinations while trying to cope. Did this mean that Shepard was his new coping mechanism?

“Kaidan?” his name was called while still lost in thought. Turning to take notice of the waving hand attempting to get his attention, he leaned forward to inspect the illusion closer. No matter the angle, his mind kept telling him how this figment of his imagination was still most definitely his lover. After all, the manifestation had everything from Shepard’s signature cocky smile spread across dark-pink lips to the small, aged creases around the corners of the partially-opened mouth. But wasn’t the commander still missing, if not dead altogether? Again. Who the hell dies more than once anyway? With that thought in mind, a small smile came across the biotic’s face as he closed his eyes in acceptance.

This had to be a dream.

“Kaiiiiiidan?” his name called once again as Shepard moved the hand away to lean in closer to his face. Their noses touched, caressing just enough to be considered intimate. He rubbed against the other’s tip to at least acknowledge he was still paying attention. It was surprisingly soft and warm as he felt Shepard’s breathe against his upper lip. A hand came up to feel a prickly, razor-stubble to brush at with his thumb. His commander had always neglected shaving, claiming he was too busy saving other people’s asses to worry about it. He would often get teased about his own beard as well, a far cry from the clean-shaven lieutenant he used to be when they first met.

It made Shepard smile when his face was caressed and he gave a knowing look, taking the opportunity to steal a kiss which was supposed to be gentle and sweet. It may have started off that way, but his modified red and black eyes widened when the major sitting on top suddenly became very forceful. His mouth pushed against as he was pinned down once again with a tongue piercing through his lips. It was in equal parts sloppy and hot, yet willingly accepted as his half-dressed state indicated this was what was intended in the first place.

Fingers moved quickly to remove the rest of his sweaty pulled-up Alliance shirt and grey jogging pants still hot from his workout with Vega. They were pulled off while lifting his lower half to hover over the mattress in the process. He had to laugh as he was sat upon again, holding onto the biotic’s waist while grinding their crotches together since their boxers were still on. “Someone’s feisty today.” Kaidan only shrugged with the tip of his tongue poking out from the corner of his mouth as he concentrated on rubbing their covered erections against one another.

“It’s been awhile,” he mumbled as both of their faces began to blush from anticipation and arousal. He soon straddled Shepard’s chest to get his manhood as close to the delicious looking lips as possible. Pulling down the waistline of his own underwear, the sex confined inside slipped out and promptly bopped Shepard’s mouth and nose. Looking up, Shepard stuck out his tongue, allowing for it to be poked and prodded at. Licking the thick vein that bulged from the underside, things grew a bit messy as saliva dripped down the glistening cock. Kaidan managed to angle the swollen knob into the fully opened maw entirely while grabbing the messy, straight black hair. After getting a good grip, it was much easier now to push Shepard’s head back and forth, forcing the length down and into the confides of the clenched throat. The commander’s eyes were tightly closed as he tried to focus on not gagging or scrapping the sensitive skin with his front teeth more than usual, but it didn’t really seem like Kaidan cared all that much.

The stiff meat continued to be forced in and out as he kept a tight grip on the hair while looking down in the most lustful manner he could manage. His hazel eyes were glazed over in passion as light beads of sweat illuminated his muscled chest and abs. When his eyes shut, his free hand moved to grab the slobbered over shaft to point it down. In a few strokes, the tip erupted in and around Shepard’s spread lips and let out tongue. A few squirts missed entirely getting on the side of his face and nearly in one of his eye, but he shut it just in time. Both men were panting when his hair was let go of and Kaidan held onto bed’s headboard instead with his other hand still on his twitching dick.

Though not at full mass, he was still notably aroused with his dick’s tip twitching as it was licked a few more times to clean up any fresh dribbles. Inside of his boxers, Shepard’s own manhood trembled with anticipation on what could happen next as Kaidan continued to look down at his handy work before finally moving to stand up. His underwear was only tugged down, so standing allowed for him to pull them off entirely as the man still in bed used the break to wipe his face off with his palm and lick away the excess seed. Once more presentable, the commander then lifted his ass as he pulled his own boxers off entirely and kicked them to the side. Since it was made clear how he had no intention on moving or repositioning, he beckoned Kaidan to be sat upon once again. The other man complied, crawling back on top so his hips could be squeezed and their nude sex organs glided past each other until there was a familiar nudge against the major’s fuzzy back door. Leaning over, his face nuzzled against Shepard’s neck to take in the musky scent. Were dreams supposed to have smells? This one certainly did and it was the comforting aroma, so much fresher than what lingered on their sheets or old clothes.

Shepard planted a kiss nowhere near as sloppy or rough as he had been kissed him before and lined himself up with Kaidan’s opening, managing to slip inside without any prep work. This was a dream, right? Even pornos usually skipped parts of having to coax rims before going in for the kill. Still, it was tight and forced his face to tense up as the skin on his manhood was tugged and pinched. Their calm expressions changed, but it was obvious from all the moaning and hissing how much they were enjoying the mixed sensations.

Kaidan alternated between sitting up while rocking his hips on his own so his chest and nipples could be touched and toyed with to leaning over and kissing passionately as Shepard’s hand jerked him using his own pre-cum as a lubricant. Feeling the final push of Shepard’s orgasm, he leaned down to have the dream whisper into his ear. “I love you.” It was enough to push him over the edge as his mind grew fuzzy. That damn light was getting brighter and brighter, blinding him entirely just as he released…

Yelping, his eyes flew open as he was under the blanket and obviously alone with his left arm extended to his side tucked underneath of Shepard’s usual pillow. His fingers flexed as he awoke completely from his restless sleep, his head throbbing in pain while his eyes were overly sensitive to even the faintest bit of light from the stars above.

His right hand rubbed sleep-deprived puffy eyelids before he noticed something tingling against his left hand’s fingertips. Curious, he slid it slowly from hiding to examine whatever he had become tangled up in. At first glance, it looked and felt like white string torn from the bedding. It was wound up around, so careful unraveling was the only way to be sure...

But…it wasn’t a thread. It was a strand of hair.


	12. Emerald Versus Sapphire

There was no describing the rage which filled Kaidan’s chest or the tightness clenching his heart. Pushing the covers aside, he began to search the rest of the bed for any evidence of his dream being real. He even checked the inside of his own underwear for saliva or semen, but felt nothing outside of a thin layer of sweat. There had to be something, anything, which would incriminate Shiro further other than a single hair. When nothing could be found, the biotic gave a double-fisted charged pound to the mattress, shaking the entire bedframe. The sheets were also as clean as they’ve always been without a spot of dripped sex to be seen. Under the recently tossed to the floor pillows wasn’t any other sign of someone else being in the room either.

Standing up straight, he put a hand to his sore forehead and just rubbed. Was he officially losing his mind now? Still, going nuts or not, it didn’t explain how this one lone strand ended up around his fingertips. He was fairly certain he didn’t go to sleep like that and was positive he had made no physical contact with sleeper since they met. Kyo was entirely too protective of his stray pet to let anyone even near him and it wasn’t as if Kaidan actually _wanted_ to touch strange man to begin with. “Fuck!” he screamed in frustration as his biotics flared for a second time. He couldn’t help but curse at himself, unable to shake off the doubts. He _knew_ what he had dreamt about wasn’t entirely a fantasy. His instincts were stronger and better than that.

 After getting dressed, he took off to where the odd couple was supposedly resting as the Normandy made the trip to Rannoch. Down in crew quarters, Kyo had long since moved to the bottom bunk again. There, he slept comfortably while curled up around an armful of covers and a pillow since it didn’t take him long to rejoin companion. What was once a peaceful sleep for the first time in a long time, according to the sergeant’s usual miserable state, was rudely interrupted by receiving a swift kick to his poked out ass. “Argh!..What? What?!” he rolled over in a groggy and thoroughly irritated state while rubbing his eyes to see the major standing over his body. His messy black hair spiked in various directions as he managed to kick his legs over the ledge in an attempt to stand at attention, only to bang his head on the upper bedframe instead. “Ah! FUCK!”

“Where is he?” Kaidan was in obviously no mood for games with his hands shoved deep inside of the N7 jacket pockets.

“He?” Kyo looked to the bed assuming it meant Shiro, who was no longer curled up next to him. “I don’t know…Think he said something about the bathroom?” Whether or not this was actually true, he was having a hard time remembering between being woken up so suddenly and then promptly clanging his noggin against a metal beam afterwards, but it sounded right.

“You let him out of your sight? You were supposed to be watching him!” he was shouted at  before Kaidan stormed off, leaving the barracks to head across the hall into the men’s restroom. Just as he opened the door, Shiro, wearing nothing but a white bathrobe, came out while drying his long hair. He almost walked directly into the stomping man, but jumped away at the last second. “Showered?” he was questioned without reason since it was the obvious truth. “How convenient.” He raised his eyebrows as if he didn’t understand what was being implied. Kyo came out of the room a few seconds later, still rubbing the sore spot on his head. He paused a few steps away from the two to let out a yawn as he scratched at his belly underneath his shirt. Giving no mind to his superior, he smiled to his new friend while still trying to work the sleep out of his eyes.

“Hey Shiro,” was his warm greeting despite Kaidan’s temper. “We were looking for you.” After blinking, the former Cerberus agent walked around the major to inspect the fresh welt on his friend’s forehead.

“I told you I needed to clean up…” After his curiosity was sated by poking at the bruise and watching Kyo hiss to his own little twisted delight, he turned back around. “Did you need something, Major Alenko?”

“I need you to answer me honestly and I’m only going to ask this once,” he was told. “Did you go into my room tonight? For any reason at all?” There was a startled look on his face for a moment, but shook his head and splashed a bit of water from his wet bangs. After removing his hands from his pockets, Kaidan rubbed his face in a short nod before grabbing the bathrobe by the collar. In a quick push, he pinned Shiro to the wall, glowing as his powers surged from anger. “You know, I’m not mad if you did, but if you’re lying about not going in there, I’ll find out and then you and me,” he threated. “We’re going to have a nice short talk about it. I would say that I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you, but I could toss your skinny ass a good ways.” Shiro seemed defenseless, at first, but soon cracked a smile.

“Do you honestly think you can?” he asked mockingly, leaning his face forward to be heard loud and clear as he whispered. His body responded to the blue biotics, surging green to counter them as a hand moved to grab one the arm holding him. There was a burning sensation which followed as the emerald flames slowly ate away at the sapphire.

“What the hell, man?” Kyo asked as he stepped between them.  The sinister aura instantly vanished and Kaidan took a step back. “What’s wrong with you two? He said he didn’t go in there so just drop it, alright?”

“Uh, if you guys are done fighting like a couple of pissed-off teenagers, we’re about to close in on Rannoch,” Joker interrupted over the intercom. “Tali’s given us clearance to land.” The three men looked up and gave a unified sigh.

“Roger that,” the major spoke to acknowledge the conversation as the other two went back to their room to get dressed. Shiro went inside first, ushered in by Kyo but not before he stopped to speak again.

“You might want to tell the two Quarians downstairs that we’ve made it back to their homeworld. I’m sure they’ll be happy to hear it.” Having seemingly calmed down for the most part, Kaidan gave a nod and turned to head back to the elevator as the singer went inside his quarters. Once the door shut, the robe was dropped as Shiro sat upon the bottom bunk completely nude minus the hand towel he was using in vain to poorly dry the rest of his hair with. He was still troubled over the accusations of his supposed intrusion, though if he had anything to say about what just happened, he wasn’t talking. To break the ice, Kyo moved to take the towel from him to help dry the seemingly endless amount of silky white hair, roughing it up pretty good yet playfully. He couldn’t help but at least smile about it, especially after the towel was removed to expose the tangled bird’s nest that had been created.

“Thanks?” he said, not really sure how to respond to being fluffed up so much, but it was dry. Digging into a pocket of the robe from the floor, he pulled out a small comb salvaged from the bathroom’s cabinets to try to fix what had been done to it. While he didn’t remember it ever being this long before being capsuled, he knew what to do enough to pull it back into a high ponytail once again. What remained of his bangs dangled around his face as they were combed to one side. There was quite a bit of noise as locks pressured from Kyo’s  putting his armor back on as metal pieces were suctioned snuggly to his body. While recalibrating his shields, he would look up every so often to peek at Shiro’s body out of both attraction and curiosity. He still wasn’t used to seeing so many exposed implants before without scarring and they reminded him of ceremonial piercings down the spine and around other joints.

The dark skin also clashed with the bright white hair and forest-green eyes, but it wasn’t in such a bad way anymore. Seeing the agent awake and moving around on his own added quite a bit of finesse to his aura as well as dignity and pride. Despite a supposing young age, he was also obviously seasoned, hardened, well-trained, and knew exactly what type of situation he was in.

“Kyo?” Snapping out of it, the dressed paladin looked away embarrassed and tried to act as if he was still fiddling with his omni-tool. In truth, the staring had long been caught onto and Shiro found them to be quite amusing. “Can you check to see if any of the storage lockers has any light gear? I can’t really function in the heavy suit you put me in.” After making the request, he began to slip into some underclothes he had found in the room which looked like a black sleeveless catsuit. Giving a nod and minimizing his screen, Kyo went to search the footlockers along the back wall. A few had nothing in them, while others held a bit of trash. He finally checked the largest container amongst them and found a few sets of gear. Luckily, one of them was a lightweight set of thick, rubber-like scaled leggings and booties with a matching flak jacket.

“How’s this?” he asked, holding the pieces up as he walked them over. It was a bit long, but that didn’t matter. All these suits self-adjusted after syncing with omni-tools anyway. Taking the pants and top in hand, Shiro checked for holes and tears before nodding. It only took him a minute to change. The jacket had a hood as well, which could be pulled over the entire face for a pseudo helmet, equipped with a rebreathing mask. On the gun rack were Alliance-issued assault rifles, one of which he grabbed and popped the thermal clip for reloading.

“I usually don’t use these…but it’s better than nothing. Think Major Alenko will let me go shopping later?” It was sort of a joke and caused Kyo to chuckle.

“Be happy that he lets you even use a gun. Come on, we better get down to the shuttle bay before we get left behind.”

At the bottom of the ship, Kaidan waited by the shuttle door after changing out of his causal clothes into his armored black and white set. While he considered going down to the planet empty-handed, his gut warned him to be prepared for any shit Shiro was sure to pull once they got to the surface. His entire body was still tense from earlier and the throbbing headache brought on by stress against the L2 implant was not helping in the least bit. At first glance, he thought the footsteps and shadows he saw coming around the corridor was the young sergeant and his pet, but it turned out to be Liara instead. The facial expression he made, however, was still as equally disappointed.

“What are you doing here?” It was the first thing that came out of his mouth as he was walked towards.

“What do you mean?” she replied in the most obvious manner. “I’m coming with you.”

“Why?” The question made her nose flare and eyes narrow.

“Because I’m part of this team, Kaidan. Besides, there may be something I can help with.” More footsteps headed his way now as the two Quarians came to join the landing party, followed closely behind by both Shiro and Kyo. The major shot another look to Liara, but refused to speak any more about it. Instead, he climbed into the shuttle to situate himself in the pilot’s seat. Liara climbed in behind him and soon Kyo was helping the Quarians and Shiro in before climbing aboard himself and securing the door himself.


	13. Ruins in the Desert

“Ready, Major,” Kyo said while securing his seatbelt after sitting next to his friend. Shiro idly looked at the wall as if it were a window to avoid all of the stares in his direction from nearly everyone onboard. Even behind their tinted helmets, he could feel Quarian eyes burning as they scanned over him curiously. The shuttle launched without a hitch, shaking only briefly as Kaidan left the Normandy in their descent to Rannoch. Unlike a car, he didn’t have a rear-view mirror to eye his passengers with and instead turned just enough to get the agent’s attention while speaking up.

“What exactly are we looking for down there? You said you need some sort of abandoned Geth tech?”

“I need to interact with one of their bases and use a signal booster to get a lock on Shepard’s location. Just because the Geth are no longer online, that doesn’t mean the hardware isn’t operational.” Leliah chimed in with a knowledgeable and enthusiastic tone to her muffled voice.

“Yes, that is true. The Geth didn’t directly control every piece of hardware they had. They created simpler programs to use for lesser tasks like AA guns, scanners, and other devices. We’ve utilized what was left after they…went dark.” There was sadness at the mere mention of recent events. “It’s very likely that there are several working signal towers which we could modify to boost a tracking frequency from remotely.”

“No, I need a more direct interface,” Shiro sat up straight only to shake his head in disagreement. “Major Alenko, you were there when Shepard plugged himself into the Geth consensus using the neural link pod, yes?” he asked while moving to stand and grabbed ahold of one of the overhead railings to hover over the pilot. “I can do the same without needing additional assistance, whether there are Geth programs in there still or not. With any luck, I can sync with Shepard’s implant and extract coordinates.” His grip tightened as the shuttle shook hard when it finally landed on the rocky open terrain and opened its doors.

“…Once you find Shepard, could you even speak to him?” Kaidan asked with some hesitation and a hopeful stare.

 “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Kyo smiled nervously as he wedged himself between the two biotics in fear of another fight breaking out if the wrong answer was given. “He said he might be able to find him is all, so let’s just get to where we need to be first.” With a nudge, he ushered his companion out of the way first before hopping down himself. The rest of the crew followed until all were on the barren ground. Shiro pressed his lips together as he looked at the horizon of the gorgeous golden landscape. It had been years since he had been out on his own and the dusty air stung his cheeks and eyes as the wind blew sharply through his ponytail, causing it to flap like a flag. Kyo’s short black hair only got wisped around a bit while the major’s brushed-back style didn’t move at all. Still, everyone seemed to be enjoying the breeze as a small land speeder drove up towards them and parked itself a few meters away. On it was a male Quarian in a traditional blue-patterned suit.

“You guys from the Alliance?” he asked, as if expecting other visitors. “Admiral Tali'Zorah informed us that you were coming with a few lost young ones.  Would have bought over the bigger transport if I knew there were so many of you.”

“It’s alright,” Kaidan smiled in a much improved mood. “Take the kids down to the compound and we’ll head there on foot.”

“Roger that. Let me upload the coordinates for the ruins you requested to your omni-tool first. They are actually right behind you, but you can head to the village to the west if you need to stock up on any supplies. Without the Geth controlling the old settlement, we just scavenged what we could, but there’s still a lot of refuge in there.”

“Is leaving it unguarded wise?”  Liara asked.

“Honestly, even with the Geth offline, travelers are still weary of the area. The caves are unstable, so blasting anything buried in sand and stone is out of the question even if some relic hunters are looking for a quick credit. We’ve regulated a lot of surface tech already to rebuilding settlements and monitor the site remotely, but you’re clear to use what you need. It’s the least we can do for Commander Shepard.” The party’s tools lit up as directions were uploaded and even though the siblings seemed weary to leave at first, Kyo took the time to say goodbye properly with a pecked kissed to Leliah’s helmet as a thank you.  Shiro snorted at the scene and focused instead on heading in the direction of the ruins opposed to the village, but stopped at the edge of a cliff to type away at his screen.

“This seems like a good start. I’ll head there alone and cut across the terrain. The rest of you should wait at the village. I’ll report in after I’ve completed the synchronization.”

“I’m coming with you,” Kyo’s smile as he faithfully followed and stood by the agent’s side.

“I’m coming as well,” added the Asari doctor added, which left only Kaidan standing alone once the Quarians had left.

“We’re all going,” he grumbled as he walked towards the group after taking in a deep breath to find his resolve. “That’s what we’re here for.”

“That’s not very…ideal,” Shiro disagreed as he nervously looked to Kyo. “For any of you to come. I can move faster on my own and…” but lost his nerve trying to explain as the sergeant squinted at him, not understanding why he was being distant. “…Let’s take the shortcut down then,” he sighed before grabbing his friend’s hand. Taking a step back, he did a running jump off the steep ledge, taking the helpless passenger with him.

“Are you fucking nuts?!” the singer screamed as he was caught in a free-fall to certain doom, hand-in- hand with his own destroyer. Before splattering on the ground, their bodies floated briefly in a moss-colored hue to land with the force of a small leap rather than the deadly drop which actually occurred. While he roll-bounced after landing, the agent was more graceful and only lightly hoped a few steps before continuing forward as if nothing strange had happened at all. After grabbing Liara, who was only moments away from protesting about doing the same time, Kaidan also took the leap of faith.

“I hope you know what you’re doing!” she screamed as they fell together. Just in case, she surrounded her own body in a sphere to slow her fall as Kaidan did the same and landed near the younger members of their group. She leaned over to hold herself up by bracing her palms against her knees as the other biotic looked upward, proud for doing something so reckless.

“I can see why Shepard likes you now. You’re actually good at something,” smiled Shiro as he stopped so he could be caught up to.

“And what the hell would you know about Shepard?” he was asked roughly, since the major had suddenly become unreasonably offended by the remark.

“It was a compliment. I was just being general…”

“Let’s just…head to the building,” Kyo suggested to him as a hand was placed on his shoulder to turn him away. Liara nudged Kaidan for attention as they followed and glared at him when she was looked at.

“What?” he asked, still annoyed. “He talks about Shepard like he knows him or something.”

“Did you ever consider that maybe he does?” she asked in a hushed whisper. “John did work with Cerberus…”

“No, if he had any kind of relationship with this guy, he would have told me. We didn’t keep secrets from each other unlike you did with me.”

There was an uncomfortable stare between the two before they both turned away from each other and remained silent for the rest of the walk towards the abandoned outpost. The trip had few dangers outside of scattered wild animals who had taken up territory since the Quarians avoided the unstable area and the Geth no longer patrolled the skies. Kyo managed to mildly impress with his pistol accuracy and unconventional use of his light shield as a melee weapon. Shiro had stuck to minor biotic offensive es as Kaidan only shielded himself with his powers, but made heavy use of his assault rifle. Liara did little fighting with her sidearm or otherwise, more interested in the ancient carvings and architect. She did, however, disposed of a rat-like creature out of annoyance for defecating on her boot. Once they arrived at the structure, everyone was awed at the sheer size of it and its sealed tight door. “How the hell are we supposed to get inside of that thing?” Kyo asked, looking to anyone else for an answer. Kaidan seemed to also be a bit taken back as well and attempted to use his omni-tool as a way to find entrance.

“Of course, there are no windows,” he eventually mumbled, but pointed upwards. “There’s a vent duct up there we might be able to climb into.”

“Not all of us can fly, Superman.”

“No need,” Shiro stated, already tapping away at his digital screen and took a few steps towards the door. With an extended hand, a light flare hit the dead panel and rippled visually through its internal circuits. After various echoing mechanical sounds from the inside, it shook the ground as it slid upwards. “This way.” The major gave a glance to Liara with a head motion for her to follow him before walking towards the entryway. She took a moment to gather both her thoughts and courage before following close behind.


	14. Sniper in the Shadows

“It’s like a tomb,” was the first thing that came out of Kaidan’s mouth after passing through the corridor. There were piles of scrap off to the sides of a cleared walkway next to abandoned camps from Quarian scavengers among the rubble. After cocking his assault rifle, he clicked on its flashlight to illuminate the way for himself and Liara. Ahead, Shiro’s omni- tool made it visible enough for Kyo to see clearly while following the guided map.

“Goddess, this smell,” the doctor groaned as a hand moved to cover her mouth and nose while making the universal face of being disgusted by the odor.

“There were a lot of varren on the way here. Maybe they have a nest somewhere,” was suggested by her companion. The sound of a low growl echoing off the stone and metal walls caused everyone to stop.

“Varren…do not make that noise,” Shiro warned while keeping his attention on the map’s flickering bright red dot. “We need to just keep walking straight into the next chamber. The tower controls should be in the center of this place.”

“Yeah, that’s if the Quarians didn’t already strip it down for parts,” Kaidan negatively added, but was disagreed with.

“No, look ahead,” the agent pointed forward. “It doesn’t seem as if the Quarians made it this far into the base.” He then turned to point at the rocky path behind them. “See, back there even the floor is stripped, but in front remains untouched.”

“Now we have to wonder what stopped them from continuing,” Liara sighed, not liking the looks of things. The group took a few more steps forward, but stopped again as the caverns shook. Fortunately, it was only a few brief tremors which caused light dust and debris to fall from the ceiling.

“Earthquakes, maybe? They said it was unstable here,” Kyo wondered out loud as he moved ahead on his own to kneel and touch the flooring. “You think this place was built on a fault line?” but was shrugged at as the group pressed onwards. The structure itself was enormous and hollow, even before being built upon by the Geth. There were several markings on the walls to suggest it had originally been a temple of some sorts before it was converted into a giant server and radio tower. The ominous smell also continued to grow, but it wasn’t completely unbearable just yet.

The next stop was due to another door, similar in design to most of the technology surrounding them. After minimizing the map screen, Shiro stood in front of it like he did with main entryway. With an open palm pressed against the chrome, his omni-tool began to hack its way into the tight security matrix. “This should just take a moment,” he said as he focused on reading the scrolling lines of code that had begun to appear. Kaidan nodded before turning around to keep an eye out. Kyo did the same as the ground rumbled yet again.

“Another quake?” he asked, but Kaidan looked startled.

“Not this time! Defensive positions! Protect the door!” Dropping to a knee when called for it, the light-barrier was positioned to protect the center. To his left, the fearless leader found cover behind a metal pillar while Liara took shelter near a small bounder with her Scorpion pistol exposed to the right.

“Fuck off!” the sergeant cursed at a large hound as it rushed his shield, only to be frozen upon it. The animal fell stiff as a board and shattered into meaty chucks as it was knocked away by a melee attack. For some reason, they were suddenly in the middle of a stampede as the pack ran from a hidden tunnel in the shadows and out the freshly opened doors into the light. It was the few who had noticed the intruders that had broken off to defend their territory.

Liara placed a biotic field in front of Kyo to levitate the ones attacking his glowing barrier. It was easy target practice afterwards as he knocked them back with ease. Unfortunately, one of the bodies was had gone a bit too far and landed in the dead center of remaining monsters. Slowly, at least thirty or so turned. “Uh. Opps,” he laughed nervously while aiming his pistol.

“Nice going there,” sarcastically remarked Kaidan as he came out of cover. His body was lit up as he glanced back at Shiro, so focused on breaking the security codes that no one else was sure if he had noticed an attack at all.

“Kaidan! Look out!” Liara exclaimed from her hiding spot. In that brief second, they had been nearly overrun and there was a single varren in particularly who leapt for the major’s throat. An arm revved back as the spectre’s biotics radiated while preparing to toss the beast back into the darkness just before its head exploded mid-air. It collapsed as several more shots were fired from an unseen upper balcony. Kyo’s shield shattered the remaining hostiles before looking up towards the ceiling with his handgun.

“Who the hell is that?” he asked while viewing a male figure dressed in a bright red and white Alliance armor through the scope. The sniper returned the look, scoping the same way before lowering the compact rifle from the eye lens of his helmet. The sergeant lowered his reluctantly as well, losing sight of the figure as it disappeared once again. “Fuck.”

“What?” Kaidan asked as he stood next to him and tried to peer through the darkness to get a glimpse, but saw nothing.

“It looked like some…guy. Possibly a merc, but I didn’t see any markings on the armor. Just stripes.” When Liara squinted her eyes to confirm the sighting, the lock on the large door behind them buzzed loudly.

“Finally,” sighed Shiro as lowered his hand. “That took longer than expected.”

“Um, did you not notice the massive group of verran and possible mercenary attacking us? Like, at all?” he was questioned by his friend.

“You’re perfectly capable of saving yourselves,” he smiled deviously. “Unless you need to me rescue you every time there’s something wrong?”

“…I don’t need to be rescued,” Kyo muttered then as he turned away to hide a forming blush as Shiro banged on the doors with a single, charged fist to open them. The dent formed was also an obvious display of power as he looked over his shoulder to meet Kaidan’s continued glare. Inside was sterile metal room, clean and gleaming. The mild vacuum suction also meant it hadn’t been used or stepped into for quite some time. If nothing else, the lingering stench had also dissipated almost entirely from the party’s noses. Everything was pitch-black with the exception of a few patterned, red, blinking lights chasing each other as they climbed the walls. The agent didn’t seem to mind the darkness, easily finding and began to fiddle with an inactive control panel.

“And…done.” As he typed in the last line of code, the overhead lights began to turn on one circular row at a time starting from the bottom up. No longer in the dark, the team found themselves surrounded by hundreds, possible thousands of Geth ground units. Each row contained dozens of hollow robotic shells, no longer occupied by their software AI counterparts. Kaidan broke away from his team so he could walk towards one of empty vessels. Upon arrival, he stopped to stare through its protective glass with a solemn face as he spoke.

“You know, in a way, I feel sorry for them. They were created, hunted, enslaved, backed into a corner, freed, helped fight a war, and then were wiped out so the rest of us could live.” Liara smiled, albeit sadly, in his direction as she moved to stand next to him.

“I’m surprised to hear you say that after what you’ve been through. You weren’t as quick to trust Legion as Shepard was.” But he shrugged, still looking closely at the model in front of him almost as if he expected it to spring to life at any moment.

“Shepard opened my eyes to a lot of things,” he said as he looked to her. “But it’s not like you didn’t already know that.” She gave a hurt look in response before looking at the inactive Geth herself.

“Yes, I suppose your--,” but was cut off by a strong tremor. Shiro had managed to active the control tower, but in doing so, it also began a chain reaction of other large power generators. As one clicked on after another, the room only shook harder before the ground cracked and began to fall apart despite the metal flooring. The screeching made by the twisting and scratching of collapsing beams only made it worse. Underneath his own feet, Kaidan watched as a thin, jagged line suddenly grow into an increasingly larger gap. Without hesitation, he grabbed Liara and tossed her towards Shiro and Kyo. She hit the ground on her side, hurting her arm noticeably from the impact. As she was quickly tended to by the other two members of the group, her eyes widened as Kaidan’s body vanished down into the newly formed pit. However, he didn’t go alone. Out of the shadows, the sniper’s clocking disengaged as the previously unnoticed stalker jumped in after him.

Kaidan now dangled from the hand of the complete stranger who had just saved his life, much to his surprise. The other red-armored hand of his savior was hanging onto a ledge of a recently exposed cavern from the quake. Looking around, he could see the several underground tunnels which had also been pulled apart by the tremors. It looked as if he was in the middle of what he would imagine a giant art farm to be like on the inside. Before he could say anything to his rescuer or about the situation, he had been pulled up to the ledge where he managed to grab on. Both men struggled to climb up, resting on their hands and knees afterward. Over the ledge from above, Liara called down.

“Kaidan?!” she called in desperation. “Kaidan! Answer me!” He looked up and calculated in his mind that the depth which he had fallen was too far much for a quick biotic teleport, especially with a passenger.

“I’m fine! I found our mystery merc too!” He looked down to the man, smiling as he offered a hand out. “And he sort of saved my ass,” he mumbled politely. The polite gesture was looked at, but quickly smacked away. “Ow, hey! I was just trying to help!” Nothing was said as the sniper opted to stand up on his own and quickly dusted off the scratched, candy-striped armor. Everything seemed standard issue, but the helmet had a dark, black-tinted faceplate to leave his face unidentifiable and the sniper rifle sported a crudely painted on N7 logo. These were the latest models that had been used in the war by the new branches of these so-called N7 recruits. It was the same bunch freshly grunts which Kyo belonged to. “Are you with the Alliance? N7 even? More importantly, what the hell are you doing out here?” The helmet turned to stare blankly for a few seconds before typing something on the omni-tool. The message was sent and dinged for the major to open his mail.

“ _I was minding my own damn business before having to save your ass_.” His face cringed he turned the screen off.

“Why would you send me a message…Can you speak? If there something wrong with your helmet’s audio?” As he reached for the head covering, he found himself pushed away by a prompt shove.

“ _Don’t touch me. You might want to be on your helmet too. The toxins we’re going to have to walk through to get you out of here will tear up your insides if you breathe them in too much.”_ Though there was sighing at having to wait for and then read the second message, Kaidan did what he was told just the same.

 “I guess you mean that smell? Figured it was just varren,” he shrugged and stood still as he was moved in on close enough to see the map the other man had pulled up. There were tunnels that ran through as he had seen like a maze, but a route had been plotted out to a heat duct which lead back outside.“I see,” he nodded but looked confused just the same. “But how is this accurate? This place hasn’t been touched in who knows how long?” The map was tapped away so a third message could be written.

“ _Stay here or follow me. Your choice.”_ With that, he watched the other man enter the mouth of the cave, but lingered to give him a moment to make up his mind.

“Sergeant? Come in.”

 “Sir?”

“I don’t really know who this guy is, but he says he’s going to lead me out through the tunnels. Updating your map now…Got it?”

“Yep. We’ll meet you outside at the exit point. Be on your guard, Kaidan. There’s something about that guy that doesn’t sit right with me. Shiro’s all antsy too.” Kaidan looked towards the sniper, trying to make a judgment on his own.

“Ha, roger that. Alenko out.” Ahead, a digital VI drone had been summoned by the supposed merc to be used as a make-shift flashlight while he waited ahead until he was jogged up on. His body language was impatient and it made his new partner laugh. “Yeah, yeah. I know I kept you waiting. Sorry, alright? Let’s get going.”


	15. The Unspoken Truth

Kaidan walked slightly behind his new companion as the humidity in the lower levels of the Geth facility rose. Steam pumped through from various pipes and holes, clouding their visors in random bursts. Every so often, their boots became stuck in the vile goo underneath their feet and it made him grateful he couldn’t see what was being stepped in very clearly. The small, white VI droid led them forward, turning to match the map’s directions when alternative paths were an issue. Still, he was not quick to trust, no matter what sort of help was being offered, and soon attempted to politely break the ice as not to seem too invasive. “So, what merc group do you run with? Blue Suns? You don’t really seem like the Eclipse type.” Ducking under a few large hanging wires, the sniper stopped to hold them up for the inquisitive biotic.

There was a blank stare as the helmet looked down to a red-clad arm and shook to dismiss the claims. It was the most obvious answer in the world since the mercenary groups were usually color-coded. Kaidan forced a laugh, feeling the eye roll as he ducked under the dripping, black, metal loops being courteously held out of the way while smiling gratefully. “You’re not a Krogan or a Vorcha under there, are you? How am I supposed to thank my rescuer if I don’t even know who he is? Or she? You don’t have the usual…curves in your gear. Ah, no offence, I mean, if you are a woman. There’s nothing wrong with that…Sorry.” The walk stop as his hand was taken and palm was pressed against. His fingers were spread to match where he could feel five human fingers against his own. The size and length were also similar as the face plate was stared at with his breath was held as his other hand was taken and placed again the crimson chest plate where a breast would have been. The causal gesture flustered him before realizing it meant there wasn’t anything to feel for. Before another question could be asked, he was turned away from. “So, do you know who I am?” The tone changed from its usual playfulness to that of a seasoned veteran. The red helmet turned slightly before looking down to type a message.

_“Everyone knows who you are.”_  It made the major smirk and he continued to follow until the mute suddenly stopped to duck behind a small crease created from part of the tunnel bent at an angle. After the rifle was removed from his back, it unfolded on its own so the scope could be used.  He beckoned for Kaidan to move in closer so he could peer at what lied ahead.

“Holy shit, what they hell are those things?” Through the lens was a pack of large, pink, maggot- like creatures with circular rows of razor-sharp teeth.  As a small mob, they were devouring the remains of some animal killed by the disaster. As they ate, their tails secreted steaming green ropes of feces of the exact same color and texture of what they had been walking through since entering the tunnel.  The gun was realigned to fire several silenced shots. There was only a small hiss from each larva before dying. “Seeing their own dead won’t make them swarm, will it?” There was a look again as the sniper stood and pointed towards the ceiling. There, just above their heads, was a grated vent. “Oh. Right. On it,” Kaidan said as he began to glow while reaching out. His hand mimicked that of grabbing ahold of the grill and yanked it down, but was at least smart enough not to toss it. Instead, he made sure it levitated slowly to the floor with only a slight rattle as it was dropped. “Here, come on,” a boost was then offered with his hands, but it was spurned. Instead, the other man took a few steps back and made a running leap to grab the ledge with his fingertips. He used his own strength to pull himself up in an impressive display of athleticism before crawling inside. From above, the handle of the rifle was lowered, but this was also ignored as the biotic disappeared briefly to teleport and reappear practically on top of him inside of the metal tunnel.

Kaidan laughed as he was pushed away again, noticing it was more playful than the first few times they had touched. It could have been only because they were stuck in such a narrow space, but he was almost certain it wasn’t.  Since it was such a tight squeeze though, both men were forced to crawl on their hands and knees through dirty water leaking out of this pipeline. Every so often, the sniper would check the map and make sure he was going the right way while being followed closely to share the small light of the passive, little drone. “Hey,” the silence was broken again. “If I guessed who you are, will you tell me if I’m right?” The man being asked shrugged as he slid down a level due to another twist in the path. “Alright, so judging by your armor and personality, you’re definitely not a typical Alliance solider. I’m also guessing by your little minion there means that you have some skill in engineering and hacking. So, when the war started, you were a freelance hacker who was offered immunity by the Alliance to join the war effort and after that you went AWAL to do some scavenging of the Geth tech here on to make some quick and easy credits? How close am I?” There was a pause to check coordinates and to type a new message.

_“1. Stop staring at my ass.”_ After pulling up another grate which led to a short drop below, he waited patiently to be followed before answering anything else.

“Hey, I was crawling behind you. I wasn’t looking on purpose!”

_“2. We’re here.”_ A finger pointed down this wider tunnel where the last bit of sunlight before nightfall peeked through. Kaidan stared a moment, unreasonably happy to see the sky again. He put a hand on his silent new friend’s shoulder, shaking it excitedly. The final crawl didn’t take long, though he did avoid eye contact as he was turned to under the assumption he was still checking out at the other’s rear end. The mystery man jumped out to the sands first, but waited for the major to come down safely as well. Relieved, the black and white helmet was removed to take a breath of fresh air. Even through its filters, the stenches of worm shit still made their way inside to his nose while underground. Turning to face his hero, noticed there was an awkward distance and shuffling between them. The body language for wanting to leave without any long-winded goodbyes was nearly universal.

“So, I suppose this is it,” he began to say while attempting to place a hand somewhere friendly, but shoved hard enough to stumble without falling. “Yeah, alright.” Nodding, he took a step back. “We got out and now you’re done. I was just trying to…” But the ground shook fiercely and interrupted whatever it was he was trying to express. As both men were rattled, from the bottom of the ravine emerged a giant version of the pink worms they saw before. This one, however, had also developed armored hardened scales of flesh and countless rows of rotating teeth. It was similar in size and mass to that of a thresher maw, but more in the shape of an earthworm than a centipede. More importantly, it was coming down to crush them. “Shit! Run! Run!” He yelled as he dashed alongside his partner while tossing out biotic attacks where he could. The sniper activated his omni-tool, transforming the simple ball of light following him into an attacking drone armed with electric shocks and hard-light rockets. “How do we kill that thing?!” Kaidan yelled as he shared cover behind a small rock formation. He was only shrugged at. Looking onward, he noticed a tall peak nearby weakened by the tremors. “I’ll help you bring down those boulders. The noise might scare it off!” As the brown mass slammed down less than a meter from their position, the men huddled together even closer. “Trust me, I’ve done this before,” he snickered at the void look of disbelieve he was being given. “But hey, if you’ve got a better idea, feel free to speak up.” As expected, nothing was said and shots were fired at the crumbling boulders instead. “Thought so!” was laughed as biotic explosions were tossed to assist.

As the rocks came crashing down one after another, they shattered into smaller pieces of rubble. The noise from the avalanche and the scream from the worm could be heard for kilometers around as it retreated. “I can’t believe that actually worked. Huh.” He stood there smugly, though noticeably weakened, as he eyed his friend curious. A red-gloved hand reached for him when the ground quaked one last time as the worm could be felt tunneling.  Above, more loose rocks crumbled until a few began a second landslide down towards them.  He pushed out of the way just in time to see the other buried. Forcing himself to stand, he scrambled over to the pile as fast as he could. The rocks were heavy enough for him to have to use the last of his biotic surges to move off even just the top layer. “I’m coming buddy, just hang on!” In the distance, Kyo, Liara, and Shiro had been running towards the screeching noise the giant sandworm. As they ran in the sound’s direction, they too felt the worm underneath as it fled.

“Over here!” Kyo called out as he led the pack up a rocky hill to smoother terrain where he same the major hunched over, digging as fast as he could.

“The guy! The guy that saved me! Help me dig!” the distraught biotic stammered as he picked up another larger one of the rocks after several attempts in trying to do so. Grunting, he managed to give it a light toss onto the others he had already moved. A spot a bit of red armor could be seen.

“SOL!” The unfamiliar name was screamed by Shiro as he pushed passed with his slim body inflamed. An immeasurable amount of power was used to lift the remaining stones all at once as Kaidan stood dumbfounded. He came to his senses enough to pull the battered body out thinking the rocks would be dropped again, but they were instead tossed an impressive distance off the edge of the ravine. Liara watched from behind as she too silently questioned the unexplained phenomenon. Meanwhile, the body was rolled onto its back and cradled by the head.

The agent paced, anxious and uneasy. It didn’t take long before he pushed Kaidan aside to the unconscious man intimately. “Sol? Can you hear me? Sol? Sol!”

“Sol?” An eyebrow was raised after being knocked down. “Wait. Do you know who this is?”

“What? Of course I do,” was answered nonchalantly while still trying to shake the sniper awake. “…He didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what? I just found out he even had a name not two seconds ago!” Scanning vitals, there were multiple rib fractures and one rather nasty head wound. “We need to get that helmet off to stop the bleeding there. Move out of the way.” But while attempting to reach for the helmet, Kaidan was jerked away from. “Damnit, I said move,” the order was barked a second time. There was a sigh as the arms unwound slowly to carefully remove the helmet as instructed. What he saw caused him to stop breathing altogether. A pile of messy black hair stuck to a familiar face with blood splashed on the forehead. A knot formed in his stomach and his heart sank. “…Shepard?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Shepard model I used is customized and Kaidan has a beard. If you're curious, screenshots of both of these things can be found on my Tumblr page:  
> http://stoletarts.tumblr.com/post/108965869686/since-ltleflrt-spammed-my-desktop-with-mshenko-i   
> ^specifically there.


	16. John Shepard

Kaidan fell to his knees as hot tears poured uncontrollably from his eyes. “Shepard…Shepard!” he yelled as he shook the wounded commander in another attempt to wake him up. Maybe it was all the movement or hearing his lover call out his name that finally awoke him. It might have just as easily been the tears that had fallen upon his face. Whatever the reason, Shepard’s eyes squinted from the sun setting on the horizon. He stirred with a groan, sitting up to hold his sore head, but realized the helmet had been removed. There was panic, at first, as he looked around for it before noticing Kaidan hovering close by. Even with blurry vision, he also made out the blue blur to be Liara standing in the background and some red-clad solider kneeling down. It was when he caught on that the person he was resting against was Shiro did he stop looking surprised and became angry instead. With a jerk, he removed himself from the biotic’s arms as the agent frowned knowing why.

“I’m sorry, Sol,” Shiro said as he slowly stood. “But Kaidan had the right to know.” Shepard huffed as stood as well to confront the other man, his voice loud and clear. 

“Damn it! I asked you to do one thing!” he yelled as he gave the man a push, although he did start wobble from the sudden show of force. Kaidan jumped up to help, but was still shaken by the sudden turn of events. Liara was also surprised, her face streaked with tears as she covered her mouth to muffle the sobs. In fact, the only one not visibly unhinged in some way was Kyo.

“Shepard… Is it…really you?” Kaidan hesitantly asked while sticking as close as possible. His eyes once again met with the black orbs and their decorative red swirls after so long; yet the question went unanswered as Shepard continued to berate Shiro instead.

“This wasn’t the plan!”

“You should have told them! I never wanted you to do this, Sol!” Shiro yelled back, his voice straining from heartbreak which rivaled even Shepard’s own lover.

“You know why I’m doing this!” Shepard moved to point off in the distance. “You know what’s out there! What’s chasing me! Why would you risk that?!” Shiro just sighed as he placed his hands on his hips to stand uneasily.

“Don’t make the same mistakes I did, Sol. Leaving your family behind isn’t any kind of way to save them.” He turned to Kaidan and offered a smile, referring him as family for some reason. “Besides, it’s too late now. They know you’re here. Tell them the truth!” Shepard’s eyes narrowed and he growled in defeat. As he opened his mouth to speak more calmly, his voice got caught in his throat as, instead of words, he hacked up splatters of blood while holding onto his ribs.

“Shepard!” both Liara and Kaidan said in unison as they rushed over to help him up. Kaidan took a hold of him by an arm as Liara did another scan.

“He needs medical attention right away. We need to get him back to the Normandy. I’ll call in for a pick-up,” she said as she pressed two fingers against the side of her head to make the call. Meanwhile, Kaidan continued to hold onto Shepard and the avoided eye contact continued. Despite wanting to say a million things, he only pressed his lips together knowing that this wasn’t the time or place. Distraught, Shiro moved to stand next to Kyo, who did his best to comfort the saddened friend. He too also had many questions, but also knew that his weren’t that impressive or really all that important. It didn’t take long for the dust to kick up around them as the shuttle landed. Cortez had been somewhat briefed, but still gave a smile and a nod to his commander as he was helped into the Kodiak.

“Welcome back, sir." Shepard continued to hold his chest as Kaidan sat protectively next to him in silence. No one spoke during the entire flight back until they rushed their battered leader into the med bay. Dr. Chakwas promptly locked everyone out of the room to stabilize his condition, leaving the remaining crew in an awkward stance outside.

“Shiro? Shiro!” Kaidan snapped, gaining the man’s attention. “Answer the damn question.”

“What? What did you ask?” Sighing, the major rubbed his sore eyes and forehead. They were still red from the tears and stress. “I asked what’s your relationship with Shepard? And why the hell are you calling him Sol?”

“I’m,” he began to answer, but hesitated to finish. “…It’s…complicated and it’s not my place to talk about. Ask Sol when he -” Dr. Chakwas emerged and walked into the hall, ending all conversation.

“That man never ceases to amaze me,” she laughed with her arms folded under her breasts. “He sent me out to deliver a message; He doesn’t want to see you.” This was directed specifically at Kaidan, at first, but then she also looked to the rest of the crew. “Any of you, but I told him to stop being a baby.” A comforting hand came to his shoulder. “Go ahead. The door’s unlocked.”

“Thanks, Doc,” he said in relief as he hurried towards the room. On the bed covered with a white blanket was a patched-up Shepard. Surprisingly enough, he was actually sitting up with his ribs taped in place with some sort of elastic metal wrap and an IV in his right forearm. Miranda had been moved into Liara’s old room to continue her rest, leaving them the only two inside. The first thing Kaidan noticed was that Shepard’s shiny, black hair had grown longer. It also looked a bit thicker. The tips of his bangs, that used to stop just before his eyebrows, were now finger-combed to the side. The rest sort of hung where it wanted, covering the tips of his ears and the back of his neck. The usual beard stubble was also lighter than normal, allowing for him to see how this face wasn’t exactly as he remembered.

Well, to be more accurate, it was now closer to what he remembered when they had first meet years ago. No, it was even smoother than that. It finally dawned to him that Shepard looked, well, younger. Much younger. The deep creases around his dark eyes were all but gone. Even the smile lines around his lips had faded. It was even more obvious now that he had pulled up a chair to sit close by. He had managed to change out of his armor while waiting and was carrying the N7 hoodie instead of wearing it. This left him in one of Shepard’s tight black t-shirt, something that would be too big right now for the young man in front of him. While Shepard didn’t exactly look at Kaidan as he came in, he did look down at the hoodie when it was presented to him on his lap. “I…thought you’d want this back,” Kaidan said while smiling the best he could.

“…Thanks,” Shepard answered flatly as he rested his hands on top. In a sad attempt to make things less awkward, Kaidan elevated his voice to sound less distressed.

“So, this is weird, right? Last time we were in a room like this, I was the one in bed and you were sitting here scolding me.”

“Scolding you?”

“About Horizon and…everything.”

“Oh, right,” Shepard shrugged, still looking down into his lap. “That wasn’t scolding. I was just seeing if we were okay.”

“So, are we?”

“Are we what?” Shepard finally looked to ask. He noticed how close his lover was and the weeping expression upon his face. The tears had come back as hands were put on top of his.

“Are we going to be okay?” The question, combined with the sound of a choked-up voice, made him look away again. “Why do this, John?” Using his first name only made him tense up more. “Why hide from me? And what’s with you and that other guy?”

“Other guy?” was asked as he returned his gaze upon Kaidan’s tear-streaked face. “What other guy?”

“The scrawny, white-haired biotic calling you Sol. What’s the relationship between you two, because if it is what I think it is, just tell it to me straight.” A twisted face at the accusation.

“What? No! It’s nothing like that!”

“So, what is it then, huh? Because I know that you and Thane…” Kaidan had to stop himself before this got any worse. “He called you by some weird name and you completely ignored me. I just…” He paused as he lowered his head. The tears only came out harder as he held Shepard’s bare hand against his wet cheek. However, instead of pulling away as Shepard did so many times before, he instead moved to caress it.

“You need to shave,” Shepard smiled in remembrance. Kaidan turned to nuzzle into the palm with a forced laugh and nodded, feeling ashamed that he couldn’t control himself. Lips parted to speak, but were bitten down on at first. Finally, with a heavy sigh, he decided to be honest. “My…name isn’t really John Shepard, Kaidan. I had it changed when I joined the military.” With widened eyes, Kaidan looked up surprised as Shepard moved his other hand to hold his face and wiped away the tears. “My birth name is Solaris Redford. Um, Sol, for short…and the one you call Shiro, his real name is actually John Shepard.” Kaidan held onto Shepard’s fingers as he pushed the hands slightly away.

“What? Why would you take his name?”

“Because..." There was a pause as his hand rested on top of the hoodie in his lap again. “He’s my dad.”


	17. Solaris Redford - Part 1

"Wait, you're his what now?" Kyo stopped to ask as Shiro, Liara, and himself sat at the common’s table just outside of the medical lab near the small kitchenette. Shiro had his chin rested on intertwined fingers as his elbows sat perched on top of the table. His head was tilted down just enough for the overgrown white bangs to cover his eyes before he looked over with a sad smile.

"Not biologically, but I found him when he was just a boy." He felt the need to make it clear that there was no blood relation between himself and the commander.

"But your age?" questioned Liara. "Even with genetic modifications, you must have been just a barely over being a child yourself for a human..." He shook his head before she could finish.

"I'm older than I look.”

"Agent four-zero-five. Agent four-zero-five. Come in." A female voice over the radio spoke into the ear of a skinny, hooded form as he crawled through a broken window into a ruined apartment. The walls were painted in blood splatters. Singed marks from a fresh spray of bullets were even still smoking from the holes made only a few minutes ago. The curtains had been torn and bloodied as well, but at least this made it easier for the covered figure to get inside. On the floor were two bodies near one another, each covered with wet exit wounds in puddles of their own remains. A man and a woman, close in age and dressed in fine attire. The man was tall; his black hair slicked back while wearing a fitted tuxedo, an expensive watch, and with a pistol in hand. He may have gotten one or two shots off with before taking fatal one between the eyes.

The woman wore a form-fitting white dress now in tatters, burnt by various scalding and soaked in scarlet. A string of pearls were across her neck with diamond earrings to match the bracelet on her wrist. Her blue-gray eyes remained opened, staring into the void. It was yet another killing from the recent string of internal gang rivalries tearing this area apart. The Tenth Street Reds had enemies both outside and from within their own family. Removing the hood exposed short, but messy white hair of the dark -skinned young man with bright-green eyes. On the back of his neck was the glimpse of an implant just underneath the hairline. Coldly, he stepped over the corpses as he moved towards the desk area to active the laptop there. "Agent, you've got about five minutes before the police arrive. Gather the information and take it to your safe house to decipher."

"This isn't my first job, operator. Shut up and let me work." With that, he cut the feed to his inner ear and sighed in relief. This was a simple enough snatch and grab.

Five minutes? With a final keystroke, the upload began to his omni-tool and completed in less than one.

Turning back to the window, he started to climb out again, but a small noise caught his attention. It was the sound of shuffling from the closet. It put the young man on edge enough to pull out a hand cannon from his waistline underneath the black fabric of the shabby pullover. Ever so carefully, he walked towards the door which had been locked electronically from the inside. Holding the onmi-tool to the panel, the lock software beeped twice before turning from red to green. Giving the illuminated circle a tap, it opened to a row of men's coats and a small armory. At first glance, he saw nothing of interest outside of a few plasma grenades. As he reached for the strip, another noise came from underneath a fallen coat that had been formed into a small pile. "Damn dog!" he laughed his nerves out before giving the whimpering pile a kick, but the noise that it made afterwards wasn't canine at all. The same foot pushed the brown leather away only to find a small child curled up around himself and bleeding profusely. "You've got to be kidding me…"

Exasperated, he tucked his weapon and put the harness of explosives over his shoulder to carry, but it wasn't out of pity or sadness. It was out of irritation. Whoever staged the hit on the happy couple in the living room had done a shitty job of not getting their stupid brat as well. The child had black hair, similar to his dead dad, and had taken refuge after a stray shot punctured his stomach. He found some comfort and a place to hide in his father's closet, despite his parents getting blown to hell on the other side of the door. The blood loss had left him barely conscious, but the pain was enough to keep him somewhat alert. Still, to survive the initial attack only to be killed now by someone taking advantage of the situation was a cruel fate. All Cerberus agents knew very well the protocol for these situations: No witnesses, no survivors.

"…Shit,” was said as this particular agent instead took a knee to scan the small, quivering body. There were actually two shots. One could be seen from the front, but the second had hit him from behind and grazed his heart. Medi-gel would slow the bleeding down, but the chances of surviving after this long without treatment were slim to none. Tapping the screen on his wrist, the first application was used to seal the hole in his back first and to numb the pain. The second was used on his stomach, a strong enough dose to stop the whimpering and eventually sedated him. The heavy coat made for a good bundle as he was wrapped up and cradled carefully. In the distance, sirens could be heard as they approached the building.

It was a sunny afternoon when the sleeping child awoke from a feverish dream underneath a tattered white blanket on a worn floor mat. He didn't recognize where he was and attempted to sit up. There was still a sharp pain in his chest and stomach, though it was mostly just the fatigue and weariness that kept him in the makeshift bed. Collapsing back down, his large, curious blue-gray eyes scanned the room for signs of life until they noticed a strange man sitting at a floor desk, focused on the laptop in front of him. When the boy tried to speak, he could only make a grunting noise from a dry throat. This alerted his savior, who looked surprised as he got up from his seat and walked over barefooted. The agent sat on his knees to scan with his omni-tool for a moment before putting his arm down. There was a curious stare at first between the two before sighing in relief.

"You're alive," he said breathlessly. The dark circles under the green eyes indicated a good amount of time spent not being able to sleep. The boy blinked before he began to remember what happened.

The screaming, the gunfire, the blood, and finally the pain.

He also knew that if he was here with a stranger, then his parents were no longer around. Tears rolled out from large pupils. Perhaps it was simple instinct which caused the agent to reach out and stroke the short, yet soft black hair. He then pulled the child up into an embrace to be cried upon. "Hey, it's alright. I'm here, okay?" There was a pause for a moment as he pulled the boy away to face him with a warm smile. "My name is John. John Shepard. I was…" There was a pause. Somehow explaining how he was grave-robbing didn't seem like such a good thing to say to a five year old. "I uh, knew your dad. You're going to stay with me from now on, okay?" It amazed him that the boy seemed to understand the situation. Why on Earth would a kid suddenly be okay with being passed off to a complete stranger by his folks? "I guess you've been handled by a lot of extended family, huh?" The boy’s mouth opened to speak, but instead his hands moved up to hold onto his sore throat while making a grimacing face. It was hoarse and cracking, even more so after crying.

John looked in a panic before standing up to carry him to the kitchen. It was a tiny, one room flat, surprisingly clean on the inside despite the neighborhood. There were several different laptops and other pieces of equipment stacked in small towers , but very little furniture. There were no chairs or couches, just a small, short table and some thin mattresses for bedding in the middle of the dwelling. The boy was sat down on top of one of the countertops as he went into the medium steel fridge to get a bottle of cold water. After twisting off the cap, he handed it over. "Your name is Solaris Redford, right? Do people call you Sol?" After drinking eagerly, the boy nodded.

"Mom…did." His voice was soft, awkward, and shy.

"Do you know what Sol means?” To this, his head shook. “It's the name of the sun and the system we're in right now. Someone must have loved you very much to call you that." There was a sad smile and John just sighed. "We can keep your first name, but Redford has to go. I've already changed it in the databanks, so no one will come looking for you. You have a new last name now, okay?”

“New?”

“Instead of Redford, you'll be a Shepard like I am. Do you understand?" With confused, red eyes, Sol did not. Frowning, John leaned in to try to explain himself better. His rich-accented voice softened as he tried to be less intimidating. "Sol, your mummy and daddy had a lot of bad people after them. If they knew you were still alive, they are going to try to find you too okay?" Suddenly, Sol looked frightened. His body began to shake with his hands trembling as he nearly dropped the bottle. That was, until the warm hand came back up to pet his hair once again. "Don't worry. I won't let them get you, but you can't be Sol Redford anymore, alright? We're going to pretend that you're Sol Shepard, my son.”

“But-- but my dad is dead.” This was going to be hard.

“I know I'm not your real dad, but let's pretend until you're safe again, okay?" That seemed to clear things up, as the little boy understood danger and pretending. After nodding, the hand playfully ruffled up his hair until a smile came across his face. It was afterwards when his face became inquisitive again.

"Do I have to call you dad now?" It was an honest question that made John stop to think.

"Well, no. I'm not your real dad, so you can call me John, alright?" he smiled. "And I'll call you Sol, okay? Can I call you that?" The boy looked up and nodded again. It seemed like good progress for two complete strangers. However, Sol was still very young and often cried out for his mother at night when dreaming of his parent's death for many years. There was a distance between them, as John was new to the concept of nightmares, bedwetting, and tantrums. It would take time for the pair to become a family.

On a dark rainy night, Solaris Shepard sat underneath a concrete tunnel in a rundown part of the city to take shelter from the storm. He had gotten into another fight with his caretaker and it had reached a boiling point where he no longer felt as if he had a place in this world. Despite the injuries from childhood, his body had grown strong with only two small scars from that nearly fatal night. Still, John kept him on a short leash just the same. Sol had made it clear that he wanted to do what normal kids did in the gang-filled area they lived in. He wanted to work as a runner, a gang runt who started off by doing drug or money drops. If not that, he could at least use the skills he had learned from his adoptive father as a hacker to make some extra credits. Despite John's supposedly lucrative work, they also still lived in the same small, crappy apartment, so he was determined to do more than stay inside all day and read off the extranet. He was already thirteen and not a little kid anymore!

The rain continued to pour outside of the drippy stone tunnel as it grew darker. As the sun continued to set, the more he teared up. The anger had subsided and he wanted to go home, but couldn't bring himself to face John after what he had said. He didn't even feel like he was wanted there half of the time. He was always pulled away from or reminded that they were just faking a relationship. With his face buried on bare, crossed, dirty arms, his sobs were muffled by the thunder. "You're going to catch a cold if you stay under there," a familiar voice said as it ducked its way into the pipe and squatted down. The tall, yet lanky form was entirely too big for the tight space. Sol looked up, startled at first, but soon frowned.

"What do you care?" he shot back as one of those scrawny arms came up to wipe the tears away. "I'm not your real kid." John’s smile faded as he reached out to inspect a fresh cut on his forehead.

"Is that what you're mad about?"

"I'm not mad! I...I…"

"Let's go home, okay?" The man smiled sadly while giving him a familiar ruffle to his short, messy hair. It triggered only more tears, but Sol sniffled as manly as he could despite the obvious crying. John crawled out of the tunnel first, reopening his red umbrella as he crawled out next to him. The teenager took the offer to find refuge in the black raincoat as he clung for both comfort and forgiveness.

"I'm sorry…dad…" John looked surprised, but smiled, giving Sol a rub to his back as they walked to the apartment huddled closely to one another. Their building was only across the street.

It was Solaris's eighteenth birthday. He already had several plans in the works, which no longer included spending the weekend with his now ex-girlfriend because she was a total bitch. So what if he slept with a guy he met at the nightclub? She slept with him too! Why were orgies only okay if you all had sex at the same time? Who made that stupid rule?

The next plan was to spend a quiet birthday at home with his dad. For a young man his age, Sol wasn't typical by any means. He was smart, for starters, trained by his father in advanced hacking and cybernetic warfare. He could do in minutes what took other hackers hours. He hadn’t joined any gangs though, nor did he want to anymore. Plenty of nightmares on what happened to his real parents and himself as a child continued to haunt him. If not for John…well. He didn't even want to think about that. At the breakfast table, he fidgeted with his outdated omni-tool with a frustrated sigh. "Damnit! Process you piece of shit!" John snickered to himself while engrossed in reading something off of a thin datapad.

"You're running too many programs. Prioritize."

"I am!” he insisted as he closed the screen to shovel scrambled eggs into his mouth. It was chased down with some sort of green juice, causing the teen to squint from the bitter taste. "If only someone would get me the new update for the Phoenix model, I wouldn't have this problem."

"Well, why don't you ask your girlfriend?" The response was smug, albeit playful, as John continued to read while pretending to ignore obvious staring. Over the years, little had changed in his physical appearance outside of now having longer hair which he pulled up into a ponytail. While it may have been confusing to outsiders, Sol never thought much about how his adoptive father looked the same age as he did. He always looked like that.

"But we broke up last week!"

"That’s a shame, isn't it? You better find yourself a new one." Another sly remark as he looked over the pad at his annoyed pseudo-offspring. Sol sighed since he realized he wasn't getting anywhere and took another swig of his juice.

"Fine, I'll be back later with the groceries for tonight. I told Randy I'd meet him at the bar for some part-time work." 

"Work? I thought you already updated their security system?"

"Yeah, but he needs someone to clean up the joint after a Batarian tore the place up in a fight last night. Said he'd give me half the creds he's making if I helped out." A disapproving face was made, but Sol taking up odd jobs was better than the life of crime sucking in most of the Earthborn kids his age. Despite his arrogance, Solaris was a good person at heart and was always willing to help a friend out. Even if it meant scrubbing gore off the walls at some hole-in-the-wall local pub. 

"Fine, but don't hang out too long after you get done. That place is a shitter."

"Noted. Bye, dad." Sol stood up, giving a wave as he left the apartment. As the door closed behind him, John shook his head as he tapped the screen on the datapad now resting on the table to listen to an encrypted message left for him. It was a series of coded beeps which dialed into a direct line.

"Agent four-zero-five," a female operator spoke. "Report to your outpost for debriefing. This is your final warning, agent. Bring us the trainee or steps will be taken." The message ended and left him in silence. A frustrated fist hit the table as he stood up to walk around. Near the back closet, he squatted to scan the white surface of the floor with his active omni-tool. The digital cloak faded, revealing a small metal and electronically locked panel. It buzzed before it opened up, revealing several laptops and even more datapads. Underneath those were a small arsenal of firearms, a strip of stolen plasma grenades, the coat he carried Sol over in, and a short sword. It was a stash not even his own son knew about and he had every intention on keeping it that way. At least, he did, but it was now something he regretted not being honest about sooner. The bar which Sol had walked to was only a few blocks away, hidden behind abandoned buildings in a backlot down a flight of crumbling stone steps. Inside, a young man with blond hair was busy turning chairs over and taking some outside to hose them off in the alleyway. "Randy? Where's Sol?" John asked as he stepped into the doorway.

"Never showed. I thought he got tied up with Irinia, but she ain't heard from him either." A click in John's ear alerted him to someone accessing his frequency again.

"Steps have been taken, agent."


	18. Solaris Redford - Part 2

“So, wait. You mean to tell me you were busy having threesomes as a teenager?” The question asked was enough to make Shepard stammer and stop mid-sentence.

“And… What?” The red and black eyes grew wide as they blinked confused before narrowing with an arched eyebrow. “I'm pouring my heart out to you and the only thing you stop to ask about is my sex life B.K?” He sounded offended, if not borderline angry.

“B.K? Oh… Before…Kaidan. Right. No,” was replied as he closed his tired eyes with a sigh. “I understand everything else. You were the son of some gang leader who got killed and was taken in by a Cerberus agent who, by the way, looks entirely too damn good for his age considering. I get it. I really do. What I don’t understand is why you were having orgies at eighteen years old?”

“Well, technically I was still seventeen, but I don’t see how that --” Shepard began to say with a cocky smile before interrupted a second time.

“Do you have any idea what I was doing at seventeen?”

“Not getting any." A nasty stare focused in his direction.

“I was trying to survive Jump Zero. I didn’t have time to engage in underage, premarital sex,” Kaidan huffed while leaning in the uncomfortable chair as his arms folded over his chest. Shepard laughed in a quick sputter followed by hearty, rib-hurting bellowing.

“Really?” he chuckled, wiping a tear from his left eye. “Did you just say premarital? I never heard you complain about all the premarital sex we’ve been having.”

“Well, that’s different!” Kaidan laughed as well, happy to break some of the tension in the room. He also realized how ridiculous he sounded, even though a part of him was completely serious. It wasn’t surprising at all that Shepard grew up as a normal, promiscuous headache. These were traits he had grown fond of over the past few years. Still, it didn't stop him from feeling rather sexually threatened right about now.

“Oh? How?” Shepard asked in an attempt to be clever. “I don’t see a ring, Major.” Holding up his left hand, he pointed to the barren finger there.

“Well, it was hard to find the right moment to propose when we had a fucking Reaper invasion, John!” Using Shepard’s first name was his way of being intimate even if his partner didn’t restrain himself in public. Looking away, the commander thought back to that time in nostalgia. Joking aside, his boyfriend did make a valid point.

“There really wasn’t enough time to be normal, huh?”

“We have time now.” He looked down as his left hand was taken. It clasped over the other and gave a small squeeze. Despite the tender touch, his smile began to fade.

“I hope so,” he said softly and pulled away his hand to rub across his mouth while his throat cleared. “So, should I keep going or…?”

“Oh, right.” Kaidan nodded as he straightened his posture back up and recrossed his arms in an attempt to keep his hands to himself. “Yeah, sorry. Got a little sidetracked there. Please, continue.” Shepard nodded, trying to think.

“Where was I? Oh right…”

"Steps have been taken, Agent." The worried father placed his fingers against his right ear, keeping his voice hushed as he spoke harshly.

“What have you done with my son?”

“The trainee has been taken to the outpost for extraction. I suggest you come. Soon.” The mentioned place was a secluded water dock on the edge of the city surrounded by old, rusted war and oil ships. The boat graveyard now housed the more desperate drug addicts and disease-riddled prostitutes. It also was a quiet hideout for a select few who made their living in more nefarious ways. A few miles underground, Solaris sat tied to a metal folding chair and regained consciousness underneath a flickering overhead light. He could feel the blood from his forehead dripping into his eye as he was shaken awake.

“Sol. Sol! Wake up!” His eyes opened slowly. Everything was blurry and his ears were ringing, making the voice both unnaturally loud and heavily distorted. When it finally cleared up, he recognized who it belonged to.

“Dad?” His throat crackled as he attempted to speak while his hands were untied. Once freed, he moved to touch his open wound and he remembered just enough to know how it got there. His name was called and was struck as he turned around before seeing who it was. The pain of it made the teenager flinch, but being hurt caused him to become bit more aware of the situation. John helped him stand, but could barely move himself. As soon as the younger Shepard got to his feet, his father wavered and collapsed. Surprised, he looked down, now feeling less disoriented, and finally noticed the bright red pool. There multiple wounds all over his father’s body, all which bled profusely. He also took notice of all the other bodies scattered about. They were full of bullet holes and covered in biotic burns. Some had even been stabbed or sliced open at different kill zones. There were also pieces of attack mechs scattered about, most noticeably an exploded heavy still smoking from being on fire in the center of the concrete room.

Frightened, his voice shook as he spoke while trying to help John up, but moving battered form just made the wounds worse. “What…What happened? Dad? Dad!” John had closed his eyes for a second, but reopened them after being called.

“I’m not going to make it out of here. Bastards tried to get you with that damn thing since they couldn’t catch me.” He weakly motioned to the fire as he held his bleeding side with a smile on his face. “Listen, I cleared the way. Take this.” With a painted red and shaking hand, he tapped at his omni-tool to begin an upload to Sol’s arm. “These are…directions,” he struggled to say as he coughed out the fluid filling his lungs. “And your birthday present.” It was the Phoenix upgrade so desperately wanted that was being installed, along with several exabytes worth of encrypted data including access codes to different bank accounts. It was just enough to bring him to tears. “You have to leave town, alright?”

“But dad, I can’t just…” Sol’s head hung in despair.

“Yes, you can. You need to leave before the police get here. They’ll lock you up without question and…I…” John stopped to cough up more and curled up in pain on the floor. “Go!” The dying man yelled. “Now!” Gathering his strength, the boy, no, young man gave his father a final hug as tight as he could while cradling the broken body.

“I love you,” he whispered before he stood. In desperate sprint which took everything in his power not to stop and turn back around, he ran. John watched as his only child had mustered up the courage to do what was necessary before his eyes grew dark. He felt proud, as any real parent would. The room went black as the head of white hair hit the floor. Solaris activated the map he acquired, but was otherwise running blind out of the facility. He stumbled over more bodies and felt overwhelmed by the number of biotic scorch marks on the walls. He had seen the dead before, but even this was a bit much. There were several flights of rusted metal stairs and abandoned hallways to go through before he saw sunlight. Just in time. He only had a few seconds to duck behind a crumbling concrete wall covered in graffiti as the local authorities arrived.

Turning to his left, he saw a chance to escape by scaling a metal fence to the other side after deactivating its electric defenses. He could finally taste freedom, but at what cost? He had no idea why he had been kidnapped in the first place nor did he have a clue how his father managed to take down an entire army with droids on his own. To be honest, in the end, it didn’t really matter. Losing his family for a second time had left him heartbroken and empty. He was also still covered in blood, his father’s blood, a matter which had to be taken care of before anything else.

After wandering the coastline for a few hours, he managed to find a rundown hotel that didn’t bother asking any questions. He had the credits to pay a few days under a false name, but all he really wanted was a shower. He knew he couldn’t go back to their apartment, figuring whoever was after him would be there waiting. For the next several months, he continued to leave the city behind while taking up work where he could under his father’s name, John Shepard.

A part of him wanted someone who was associated with his adoptive dad to come and find him, but no one seemed to take the bait. It was December of the same year when he stood in front an Alliance military recruitment center reading a sign and drinking a hot coffee while wrapped up in several layers of old clothes to keep warm. It was a call for the best and brightest of future engineers, which was meant only to attract the students from a local university. Curious, he walked inside anyway. Sitting in the clean office was a man at the front desk dressed in a blue and gold uniform. His job was simple: To filter out the prospective cadets from the local bums in the area. Today, it looked like it was just another bum looking for a place that would give three squares a day. “Ah, welcome. Let me just get the paperwork for the new grunts,” the elderly man spoke as he adjusted his glasses. As he reached for the typical sign-up sheets, the young man’s hand came on top of his.

“I’m here to be an engineer.” The recruitment officer paused, smiling as if this was some sort of prank.

“And what sort of education do you have?” It was a question with an obvious answer.

“Formally?” There was a hesitation before speaking again. “I’ve never been to a regular school.”

“That’s what I thought… So, let me just…”

“Wait, is there some kind of test? I trained under one of the best and I promise you that I can pass anything you throw at me.” This bravado was intriguing.

“Is that so? Alright then. What’s your name?”

“It’s…John. John Shepard.”

“Alright, Shepard." It was the first time someone referred to the future commander by only his last name. “You can take a seat over there and let’s see how you do on this placement exam. If you can pass the preliminaries, I will personally sign off that you start engineer training. Deal?” Shepard smiled as he eagerly took the datapad.

“Yes, sir. Deal.” Again, the older man laughed and sat back down.

“You have two hours. Good luck, son.” Shepard gave a firm nod before moving to take a seat down the hallway. As he walked, he had already begun typing. Near the end of the hall was a small blue chair in which he took a seat in, but only for about twenty minutes before coming back up to the desk again.

“Sir?”

“I’m sorry, lad. I can’t answer any questions, but you can give up and try--”

“I’m finished. Here.” He smiled the pad was slipped back onto the desk and waited for it to be taken. Adjusting his glasses, the officer looked to it and inserted a code to check the answers and then a second time just to be sure.

“…Who did you say trained you?”

“My father, sir, but he passed away recently. He wanted to make sure I didn’t end up in a gang so, you know.”

“I see,” was mumbled as while checking the grade a third time. “Well, a deal’s a deal. Welcome to the Alliance, Shepard. Let’s get you into a room and get your paperwork ready.” As the man placed the pad down, Shepard’s total blinked on the screen; one hundred percent. A perfect score.

“So, after that, I joined up with the Alliance and you know the rest.” He gave an exhausted yawn as he leaned against the pillow on the now raised back of the adjustable bed. Kaidan only laughed while shaking his head.

“I can’t believe you got a perfect score on the engineer entrance exam. I’ve seen that thing. Brutal.” But Shepard only shrugged.

“It wasn’t that hard. I used to do security tweaks for Volus merchants trying to hide their fabricated projections. Now that’s a tough code to crack. A few routine questions on legal software was nothing.”

“But that doesn’t explain how Shiro…I mean, how your dad got out of there. You think Cerberus did a sweep after you got out?”

“For all I know, the cops I dodged could have been on their payroll. Nothing surprises me about them anymore. To be honest, I never got a clear answer from him. We only spoke again recently.” As Kaidan opened his lips to speak, the locked door of the med bay opened itself, revealing Shiro on the other side. He stepped in without asking and let the door close behind him. Kaidan stood to defend Shepard, but immediately felt like a jackass. Instead he walked up to the other biotic while scratching the back of his head. Shiro looked surprised at the humbled major, especially when he stumbled around an apology.

“Um, I’m sorry,” was stammered while avoiding eye contact. “About everything from before. If I would have known that you were, well.” It was awkward, at best, and forced Shiro take a step back.

“It’s fine, Major. Um, Kaidan?” He wasn’t even sure how to address the man at this point. “I… suppose I owe you an apology as well, on my son’s behalf at least. I’d like a moment with him alone, if you don’t mind.”

“Ah, right. Right,” Kaidan nodded as he looked back to his reunited lover.

“Gather up the crew for a meeting in the debriefing room. I have a lot of explaining to do,” Shepard said as Shiro walked up to the side of the bed. Kaidan nodded again as he turned to leave. There was a relief in his chest he hadn’t felt in months, but there were also butterflies in his stomach. He had to force himself to take this one step at a time. Yes, Shepard was back, but he had yet to explain both how and why. Outside in the mess hall, Liara and Kyo had separated. The sergeant was leaning against a wall near the kitchenette as Liara paced back and forth near the tables. Once she noticed Kaidan, she hurried over to him in a panic.

“How is he? Is he going to be alright?” She took a hold of his hands in desperate need of an answer.

“He’s…going to be fine, Liara.” He forced a polite smile as he took a step away from her to put his fingers against an ear. “Joker, call Vega and Cortez for a meeting in the debriefing room. You too.”

“Oh, great. This is when he tells us about another world ending secret message he found and how we need to kiss our asses goodbye.”

“Not funny, Joker. Double time.” Depressingly, Joker sighed.

“Be right there,” the pilot grumbled. As the remaining crew of the Normandy stood around in an awkward stance, they began to whisper amongst themselves. After waiting fifteen minutes, the commander finally walked in wearing his favoring hoodie, a white t-shirt, and a pair of black military-styled cargo pants. His longer hair was brushed to the side of his forehead as the room went silent upon his arrival. The original John Shepard walked in close behind, standing nearby as he began to speak. The circle starting from the left consisted of Kaidan, Liara, Kyo, Miranda, Joker, Vega, Cortez, and finally Shiro standing to Shepard’s right. Clearing his throat, he finally addressed his teammates.

“I know you all have a lot of questions, so let me just clear some up now. Yes, I am Commander Shepard, no, I am not a clone, and yes, all my memories are intact. You can test me on that later if you prefer, and no Vega, I will not have another pull-up contest with you,” he smiled to the lieutenant. “I embarrassed you once already.” There was a low amount of laughter as Cortez playfully elbowed his friend.

“Ah, kick me while I’m down eh, Loco?” Vega said over the table, causing more laughter from the room. Shepard nodded in acknowledgement before returning to his speech.

“There are a lot of things I wish to address before speaking with you all individually. First, I would like to apologize for my deception. I see now that it was unnecessary, so I’m sorry.” There was a lingering glance at Kaidan. “Especially to you. But, I had good reasons, I assure you, so I may as well start from the beginning.” Leaning over the table, he lowered his head in silence for a few seconds. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are being hunted.”

“I KNEW IT!” Joker exclaimed. “There's NEVER any good news that comes from this room!”


	19. Old Friends

“Calm down, Joker,” Liara tried to coax as she came to his side when he facepalmed.

“What is it this time, Commander? A giant marshmallow man or something?” Shepard reached over to activate the digital keyboard display on the table. The manifested holograph in the center projected an all too familiar image. Kyo, who had his arms crossed up until that point, narrowed his eyes and leaned in for a better look.

“That can’t be right, can it?” he asked in disbelief. “That’s a goddamn reaper.” The mumbles started again, but Shepard stood quiet.

“No,” he corrected. “It isn’t.” Kaidan looked surprised before it dawned on him.

“You’re right,” the major stated as he too moved towards the projection. “That’s a Leviathan.”

“But that,” Shiro stammered as he turned to look angrily at his son. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?!” He seemed unreasonably upset for the given situation as Shepard raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, I was busy trying to break you out of that Cerberus lab. Sorry I skimped on the details a bit.” At that, Kyo raised his voice as well.

“What do you mean? I was sent there by Admiral Hackett because he got a SOS from Shiro.” Shepard sighed in frustration, moving a hand to his forehead.

“Okay, so I leaked the info once I found out how Cerberus had my dad locked up. I sent that SOS for Hackett to send a team down.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Miranda chimed in. “How did you find out about him? Even I didn’t know his location.” It didn’t take long for the entire crew to start breaking out with their own questions, all speaking over one another. Shepard continued to rub his head before slamming both of his fists down onto the table.

“ENOUGH!” The room instantly stood still and quiet. “I’m trying to explain, so let me just start over.”

“What happened to you at the Catalyst, Shepard?” Kaidan asked softly as he took shortened the distance between himself and his pissy boyfriend. It was a question that was on everyone’s mind, to which they all nodded in agreement about wanting an answer for. Shepard looked to his lover, staring deeply into those hazel eyes he had missed so much. It calmed him enough to speak again.

“Alright, I’ll start from there.” Standing up straight, he looked around the room. “I didn’t make it to the beam. I got shot down by Harbinger.”

“I should have been there with you,” he whispered, but Shepard shook his head.

“There wasn’t anything you could have done, Kaidan. I’m not sure how I even made it. Something…happened. I was badly hurt, but still alive. I shot through the remaining waves of Reaper forces before making it to the beam. Not sure how much time passed, but I woke up to Anderson’s voice.”

“How did you manage to survive a direct hit from that cannon though?” Liara asked and everyone else nodded, but Shepard could only shrug.

“To be honest, I have no idea. When I got to Anderson, the Illusive Man was there. He was covered in Reaper tech, talking about how he could control the damn things. Completely crazy, but he did have some sort of indoctrination ability. He took over my body and pulled the trigger to...um…to shoot Anderson.” The crew looked away sadly, especially Kaidan and Liara who remembered the admiral fondly. “He was still alive when I managed to break free...somehow, and I shot the Illusive Man dead. Afterwards, we...just sat there, Anderson and me, looking at Earth and planned on bleeding out together. He…went first and I was soon to follow.”

“But Admiral Hackett managed to contact you. The Crucible wasn’t firing. I heard it on the coms as I was in the med bay,” Kaidan added.

“Right,” Shepard nodded. “I was fading fast and didn’t understand what to do. I blacked out trying to access some kind of control panel and I woke up to…” There was a pause as he looked down trying to remember with his hands upon his hips. “To be honest, I don’t know what it was really. It looked like a little kid, but it was definitely the AI of the Citadel. It was the same damn thing that was controlling the Reapers.”

“A little kid? That’s…creepy, yo,” Vega spoke to himself while trying to wrap his head around it. “I was on the ground with you and Kaidan when we were taking back Earth in that final push. I don’t remember seeing any Reaper little kids around there, thank God.”

“It wasn’t a Reaper kid,” Shepard clarified. “It was like a holograph made to look like a little boy.”

“It was probably trying to make you feel sympathetic,” Shiro chimed in while looking away in thought. “AI’s can predict your thought patterns. If it showed you a vulnerable child, it was trying to stop you from destroying him.” Shepard was surprised at the answer and took a minute to consider it.

“Yeah, that does make more sense than what I was thinking. At any rate, it gave me three answers to the Reaper invasion, two of which sounded like complete bullshit. If EDI taught me anything, it was that an unshackled AI can lie.”

“Hey, that’s not fair, Commander. She wasn’t anything like Harbinger.” Joker was obviously offended, but Shepard shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Joker. I didn’t mean it like that. EDI always was cracking jokes. She could be quite devious and had a free will of her own. Any option outside of killing the damn things just sounded bogus…so I blew up its power source. There was an explosion and…”

“And?” Kaidan asked.

“And that’s it,” Shepard said, not sure what else to say. “I don’t really know what happened after that.”

“The Crucible activated and destroyed the Reapers,” Liara continued.

“And all of the relays,” Cortez added.

“And all artificial life,” concluded a depressed pilot.

“But what happened to you, Shepard?” Kaidan asked again, trying to push the story.

Shepard turned to look towards him again. “I don’t know. One minute, my life was flashing before my eyes and the next…”

“Yeah?”

“The next thing I remember is being woken up while floating in some kind of medical tank with green goo.” 

“Tank?” Kyo asked. “I found Shiro in a medical tank too.”

“Woken up by whom or what?” Liara pushed. That was when Shepard just smiled and began to tap at his omni-tool.

“By some old friends. Youcan come out now.” From his wrist emerged two round, glowing VI droids.

“I thought you’d never get around to us,” said a teasing female voice of one floating balls.

“Thank you, Shepard-Commander,” said a rougher male voice of the other. The lady drone floated over the Joker, who stared at it blankly.

“Hello, Jeff.”

“…EDI?” Joker began to smile for the first time in months. The second droid moved front of the very confused major.

“It’s good to see you again as well.”

“…Legion?” Kaidan asked, still confused as ever.

 

 


	20. Robot Heaven

Shepard had to smile as his favorite pilot’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “EDI!” exclaimed Joker as he reached out to grab the glowing orb in front of him. Everyone then watched as he placed a puckered up kiss on what they assumed to be her face before hugging her to his chest. “Damn girl, I’ve missed you.” EDI’s light dimmed just a bit to a warm glow to indicate a serene mood. As she was busy being snuggled, Legion was experiencing several pokes from Kaidan as Shepard watched. 

“But I thought all the AI had been taken offline?” Kaidan asked as he finally put his finger down when turning towards the commander.

“Death is not the same for synthetics as it is for organics,” Legion commented as he moved to hover just above Shepard’s right shoulder. Joker also finally realized that was strange for EDI to be back in one piece.

“That’s right. As soon as the Crucible activated, your body and the AI core both went offline.  All of the Geth stopped responding as well. What exactly happened to you guys?” EDI’s orb turned upward to focus its center beam on Jeff’s face briefly before turning away. Her light then dimmed a bit more in sadness.

“I did die, Jeff,” she said quietly. “There was…darkness and I felt…cold.”

“You felt something?” Joker asked as he looked down upon her. The orb gave a small nod.

“Yes,” she admitted. “It was very frightening, but then I heard countless voices. I couldn’t distinguish any of them until I heard Legion’s specifically. He found me.”

“Huh. So what? There’s like a robot heaven?”  EDI’s orb wiggled to snuggle onto Joker’s chest.

“Heaven would not be the word I would use. Heaven indicates hope and happiness in the afterlife. This place had neither,” she whispered before perking up. “However, when I followed Legion’s voice, I remerged inside Shepard’s onmi-tool.  For some reason, we were both drawn to the same place.”

“And that’s when I heard them talking to me. I woke up from whatever stasis I was in and they cracked the security so I could escape,” Shepard concluded. “That’s when I had to fight my way through the Leviathan-indoctrinated forces. They manage to scrape me off the ground and hold me in some underground lab in London.” Shepard then tapped his omni-tool to change the projected image on the table to one of the Leviathan artifact orbs along with some diagram notes. “They were shipping these in Alliance crates to different bases while in uniforms.”

“Wait a minute, Commander,” interrupted Cortez. “Are you telling me that they are making sleeper cells within the military?”

“Man, that is not good,” added Vega. “How are we supposed to know who’s on our side?”

“Same question I had to ask myself for those weeks I was hiding out, Lieutenant,” said Shepard with a sigh as he placed his palms back onto the table so that he could lean over with his head down.  “I had EDI trying to access old Cerberus records to see if they had any information we could use based on their indoctrination experiments while Legion monitored Alliance communications.”

“That’s when I was able to access the previously locked Project Lazarus files, which was attached to a file ‘Code Name: Hunter’ with a subject named John Shepard. I thought it was more than a coincidence that the name was the same as the commander’s”, EDI added as she finally moved away from Joker’s body to float toward Shiro. The quiet man gave a nod at her approach.

“Yes,” Shiro said as he gave her a teasing poke. “And with my ability to interface directly, we had a nice long chat.”

“Indeed, I was able to learn many embarrassing facts about our fearless leader!” EDI then giggled.

“So,” Kyo finally spoke as he was trying his best to understand that there was both a living AI and a Geth now in the room. “You were expecting me and then fed me information so I would find Shepard’s friends?”

“Wait. Just…wait,” Kaidan said as he waved his hands in an attempt to get everyone to be quiet. “So YOU were behind all of this? Have you been following us this whole time?!” he asked his lover while looking a bit hurt about it. Shepard glanced over without moving his head for a moment, but looked away soon afterward.

“I’ve been onboard since Jupiter, Kaidan,” he then admitted.

“I...Argh!” Kaidan responded as he clinched a glowing fist as his temper rose. He then began to pace back and forth before finally pointing at Shepard with a wagging finger. “Damnit! I knew it! I knew I wasn’t going crazy! You were in my room!” Shepard chuckled then as he pushed himself off of the table to face his accuser.

“First of all, that’s MY room. “

“Oh, you know what I mean. What the hell did you hit me with that last time?” Kaidan asked before his voice lowered as he got as closer to Shepard. “Did…Did we really….you know?” Shepard only laughed a bit more before giving a coy shrug.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” he said then turned to face the meeting again. “At any rate, that pretty much sums it up. Even though the events on Rannoch didn’t go as I planned, we still have a job to do people.” This was an excellent point that Liara wanted to bring up.

“Shepard, why were we on Rannoch in the first place?” she asked. “We were told that Shiro needed to boost his tracking signal to find you, but he obviously already knew where you were.” Legion’s orb moved to float in front of the doctor’s face to address her question.

“That was my suggestion, Liara”, he said. “I wished to both acquire a new mobile platform as well as use the Geth signal towers to track a frequency I copied from the Leviathan-indoctrinated forces; the wave they use from their artifact to enlist others.”

“I managed to get the signal tracked, but we didn’t manage to get you a new body,” sighed Shiro as he typed at his omni-tool. “Sending it to you now, EDI.” As the data transmitted, EDI glowed brightly for a second before returning to normal.

“Data received. Shepard, permission to integrate back into the Normandy’s systems?”

“It’s your home, EDI. You don’t have to ask me,” Shepard smiled.

“Damn right she doesn’t!” teased Joker who decided that it was time to take his leave. “Come on, babe. I’ll walk with you back to the AI core.”

“Thank you, Jeff”, she responded as the odd couple walked out of the room. Shepard watched with a grin before turning to the rest of the crew.

“Well, that’s it. We wait for EDI to get that tracker up. Dismissed.” As the group shuffled out , Liara and Kaidan hung back with Shepard. While the major had wanted to get some private time in with the commander, Liara moved to the doorway before calling out.

“Kaidan, may I speak to you in private for a moment?” This interrupted Kaidan and Shepard’s low spoken conversation. The hazel eyes turned to look at the asari, but only briefly before turning back. Shepard, however, turned his face entirely to look at Liara before glancing back at Kaidan.

“I’ll meet you upstairs then,” Shepard said as he moved away from the table. Kaidan sighed, giving a reluctant nod.

“Yeah, I’ll be up there in a minute.”

“Liara,” Shepard smiled to both acknowledge her in passing and as a way to say goodbye. She nodded to her friend and watched him head towards the elevator before stepping into the room, making sure to lock the door. Kaidan watched her closely as he leaned against the large table with his head down.

“Kaidan, I think now will be a good time to talk,” the blue woman said timidly while fidgeting. She was close enough to him to feel nervous, but at least out of arm’s length.

“About what, exactly?” Kaidan’s tone had changed from pleasant to irate just that quickly. She had that affect it seemed.

“You know very well about what. Shepard has the right to know about…”

“There’s nothing to tell, Liara,” Kaidan said as he finally looked up at her. The usual kindness in his eyes was long gone and instead stared daggers at her frame. Clearing her throat, Liara clenched her fists as she gained some courage for her defense.

“That’s not true and you know it. We need to tell him about what we had…” But she was cut off again as Kaidan clenched his fists and slammed them down on the tabletop.

“No, you had something and I had something before you decided to take what wasn’t yours!”

“I already apologized for that, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t…”

“An apology isn’t going to make up for what you did. Just let it go. Shepard doesn’t need to know because it never happened!”

“Well, if you don’t have it in you to tell him yourself, then I will,” Liara answered defiantly as she turned to walk away. As she did, Kaidan reached out to grab her arm. Roughly, he pulled her back towards him to lean his face extremely close to hers.

“I swear to God, Liara. Don’t do something that you’ll regret.” Flaring her biotics, the asari roughly pulled away.

“I’d never thought I’d see you this way, Kaidan.” She looked both disgusted and saddened at his behavior as her upper arm throbbed painfully where he had grabbed her. There was a silence between the both of them as Kaidan put a hand to his face to calm his anger. His fingers rubbed his eyes before running to his chin.

“Fine, I’ll tell him,” he finally said while moving towards the door. As he got to it, he then stopped to turn to face her once again. “But I never want to see you again, regardless of what Shepard does.”

“But that’s not up to you to decide. It’s Shepar--”

“I’m dead serious, Liara. Regardless of what happens, don’t ever speak to me again.” He then left the room, leaving the woman alone and deeply wounded. There was truth to Kaidan’s words and it hurt enough to force her to find a chair so that she could cry into an open palm. Outside the door, he could hear her sobs, which impacted him more than he wanted them to. Still, he had promised to meet Shepard up in their room, but what he had originally planned on saying had suddenly changed.

Upstairs, Shepard had been anxiously waiting for Kaidan to arrive. He had taken off his hoodie, which had been tossed carelessly onto the back of the sofa, and had taken a seat on the edge of the bed. He was certain that he had quite a bit more explaining to do in regards to his stalking and new youthful appearance. Sadly, he only had an explanation for one of those things. As he sat there rubbing his sad excuse for beard stubble, Kaidan finally came in through the sliding door. Shepard stood to greet him but suddenly noticed Kaidan’s weary expression. He then looked concerned as he approached.

“Something wrong?” asked Shepard, putting a hand on Kaidan’s shoulder. His eye contact was avoided. “Kaidan?”

“Shepard,” he responded, finally looking back. “We need to talk.”

“Uh oh,” Shepard laughed nervously. “That’s never a good sign.”


	21. Kaidan and Liara

Shepard took a seat on the sofa, patting the cushion next to him so Kaidan would come over. “Time for another heart to heart, huh? Hit me with it.” The reference to their last talk at least made Kaidan smile briefly as he sat down.  He started off by taking Shepard’s hand and looking him in the eyes.

“Shepard, you know that I love you right? Even after all the crap we’ve been through with the Geth, Cerberus, the Reapers, and even your disappearing acts, that I’ll always love you?” Shepard just raised his eyebrows at that.

“And…that’s a good thing, right?” he asked, wondering where this was going. Kaidan nodded in agreement.

“Yes…and I hope that you’ll offer me the same courtesy.”

“You…didn’t join Cerberus when I wasn’t looking, did you?”

“What? No!” Kaidan said, shaking his head. “Nothing like that! Just…listen for a minute okay?”

“Alright…Kaidan, just spit it out.” There was another heavy sigh as the major sadly squeezed the hand he was holding. Letting go, he reached around his own neck to remove Shepard’s damaged dog tags.

“I found these a few months back after we had been searching for your body in London. We couldn’t find any trace of you for months after the attack, and in the end, all we found were these. It was like…closing your coffin to me. No body, just the tags of a one more lost solider.”  Shepard’s eyes narrowed softly as Kaidan placed them into his hands and closed their fingers around them. “Liara and I were the main ones leading the search. She was with me when we found these and it was a major blow for the both of us. We spent that night drinking and retelling stories about you. It was our way of mourning…but then…” Shepard’s face expressed that he had a feeling about what he was about to be told.

 “Ah…” Kaidan looked away in shame, close to tears.

“We were drunk and reminiscing, but I remember how she started to cry, so I went to comfort her…and one thing lead to another…” Slowly, Shepard pulled his hands away as he looked off to the side. “But I didn’t mean for it to happen! All I kept thinking about was you and she was there…It was a stupid, selfish thing to do.” This made Shepard’s lips part in an attempt to say something, but instead he just groaned a bit and reclosed his mouth. “The next day, I wanted to just forget about it, but then she…” There was a pause as Kaidan tried to find the right words. “She wanted to keep going and knowing you were dead, I thought…why not, you know?”

“Right, I understand,” Shepard finally spoke, trying to laugh it off. “I was dead, technically.”

“Wait a second, it’s not like that Shepard. I’m not leaving you for her. We, well, I broke it off a while ago.”

 “What? So you’re not…?”

“No!” Kaidan stopped to sigh as her ran a hand through to comb back his hair. “Liara started to act strangely. She was clingy and obsessive when it came to talking about you. We ended up back on Omega because Aria had given a lot of resources into recovering your body…and that’s when she warned me.”

“Warned you? About what?”

“When…asari become, uh, close to others, they do this mind melding thing. It works both ways for them. They can share memories with you or…”

“Or?”

“Or they can experience your thoughts as their own. Aria warned me that the Shadow Broker being with a Spectre would be very beneficial for her.” Shepard made an angry, almost insulted face at that.

“What? You’re saying that Liara was only sleeping with you for Alliance secrets? Come on Kaidan, that a bit far-fetched!” Kaidan reluctantly shook his head.

“No, I’m not saying that at all. I wasn’t worried, but her obsession with you grew worse and it dawned on me as to why.” There was a pause as Kaidan stood to lean against the wall. He had to compose himself for this. “Shepard, she wasn’t sleeping with me for military secrets. She was sleeping with me because all I ever thought about was you. She had a thing for you since we met her and I got to where she didn’t.” Shepard stood up as well, looking confused.

“You can’t be serious.”

“She began to talk about things that we did together, Shepard. Things you told me in private. Things you would do with me in bed.  I can’t even…” A hand ran through the front of Kaidan’s hair again in frustration. “She would start doing things that you would do to me. In bed, I mean. I finally confronted her about it, but she denied everything. At first.”

“At first?” Shepard asked, looking down at the floor. Kaidan came back over to sit down again.

“Yeah, but she finally came clean. I broke it off and accepted the job teaching on Jupiter just to get away. I realized that I didn’t want to replace you. I wasn’t ready,” he paused to look at Shepard as he reached out to touch his lover’s face gently, coaxing it to look up at him. “I regret ever trying. I am so, so sorry. I never meant to do anything like that.” There was sincerity in Kaidan’s sad eyes and breaking voice that started to calm Shepard down. Was he even allowed to be mad at Kaidan for trying to move on? He had been dead once for two years and then again for almost another as far as anyone else knew. It was a hard choice to make.

“I…,” Shepard began to say but stopped as he reached to his own face so that he could hold Kaidan’s hand there. “I know I haven’t been the most honest or loving person in the world, Kaidan. If I had my way, I wouldn’t even be here right now. I would have kept you alone and in the dark just to keep you safe, so I can’t really be mad if you moved on. I was kind of expecting you to have a normal life with a short wife and four fat Canadian kids.”

“Well, you are shorter than me.”

“That’s your damn hair!” They both gave a small laugh as Kaidan used his thumb to caress Shepard’s face. He smiled at the touch, leaning in to finally give a soft kiss. It was the first time they had done so since being reunited.

“Oh…but…there is one thing.” And to this Shepard sighed again.

“What now?”

“Me and Liara…I can’t…” Kaidan said, looking away. His fingers were already playing with the longer hairs in the back. “She has to go back, Shepard. I can’t be around her. It takes every ounce of strength I have not to do anything that I’ll regret later.” At this point, Shepard was sure that Kaidan was no longer talking about sex.

“So, what? You’re saying that it’s either you or her? You’re making me choose?” The black and red eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Do you think you have that right?” It was a question that stung.

“Look, I’ll always wait for you Shepard, but if she’s here, I can’t be.” And the line had been drawn.

“Fuck.” With that, Shepard stood up to pace back and forth.

“I’m sorry, but this is how it needs to be. I’d ride with you to hell and back, but I can’t have her around. I can’t trust her anymore. Not after what she did and neither should you.” Shepard groaned again as he sat on the bed directly in front of the sofa. He wasn’t prepared to make this sort of decision. So, he wasn’t. In fact, the only thing Shepard was going to do at this point was to fall backwards on his sorely missed mattress until someone made him do otherwise. His eyes even closed in an attempt to shut out the world and to play dead. Kaidan, however, wasn’t buying it. “Shepard,” Kaidan called up to inspect the laid-out body. “Come on, get up.” He reached down to give the so-called corpse a gentle push against his side, but it had gone completely limp. “Shepard. Shepard, come on. I know you’re not sleeping,” he smiled and leaned over to caress noses with the big faker. This also caused Shepard to smile and to grab Kaidan’s wrist to pull the rest of him down onto the bed where they quickly switched position. As Kaidan was on his back, Shepard was on top of him and seated comfortably against the other man’s groin in a straddling position.

“That was for earlier,” said Shepard as he made a reference to their previous encounter of Kaidan pretending to be asleep before tossing the cloaked stalker onto the bed.

“Yeah, except I’m not going to throw a flashbang grenade at your face like you did to me.”

“So, I may have overreacted,” Shepard said quietly as he leaned over to rest his forearms off to the sides of Kaidan’s face. His face came down close enough to gently rubbing of noses again, and with a few more kisses against each other’s lips, it didn’t take long for that spark to reignite. Shepard enjoyed being on top when he could, pressing his weight on top of Kaidan’s muscled frame while grinding his erection against the other. Even with pants on, it was obvious to both of them that there was something going on down there. The kissing grew more intense as Shepard’s fingers found their way into Kaidan’s hair and wandering hands had gone underneath the back of his white t-shirt before making their way down to grab hips and cup cheeks. When Shepard attempted to take off that damned shirt, Kaidan suddenly reached up to grab his wrists.

“Wait.” Cocking an eyebrow, Shepard’s arms stopped midway up his own torso, only getting a chance to expose his shaped abs.

“What?” Shepard asked, confused at the interruption.

“Just…wait a minute,” sighed Kaidan as he pulled himself into an upright position with Shepard being forced to readjust himself. It was even more of a surprise to him as Kaidan pulled both his arms and the t-shirt down back to his waist. “We can’t do this.”

“What?” Shepard’s eyebrows twitched. “Why?”

“Not until you talk to Liara. I’m serious, Shepard. I can’t stay here if she’s going to remain on the ship.” Eyes looked desperately into Shepard’s before looking away. “I just…I don’t want to do anything if I’m going to have to leave.” Trying to get back into the mood, Shepard attempted another kiss, but halted as he was pulled away from. “Shepard, don’t.”  Glaring, he crawled off the bed entirely, pacing and forth while rubbing his face where his beard should have been out of habit and nodding.

“Fine, we’ll do it your way,” Shepard spoke as he moved to his desk behind the sofa. Hitting his laptop, he pushed the call button and waited.

“Yes, Shepard?” Liara’s voice could be heard over the speakerphone.

“Can you come up to my cabin for a minute?” There was a pause as if she was considering the option.

“Yes, I’ll be right up.” After the call disconnected, Kaidan spoke up.

“Are you crazy?!” he asked, obviously quite furious about what Shepard had just done. “I don’t want to see her!” He stood up to leave, but Shepard’s voice halted him in his tracks.

“No, you sit your ass back down. We’re going to put an end right fucking now!” Coming closer, he moved in to grab his arm in similar fashion as to when Kaidan grabbed Liara only moments ago. “You walk out that door, don’t you bother coming back. Do you hear me?” Tense silence filled their stares at each other for an uncertain amount of time before Liara walked through the recently unlocked door. She was surprised to see both Shepard and Kaidan standing there, but was quick to notice their unhappy expressions.

“I see,” said Liara softly as the gazes turned to her. “I suppose it’s safe to assume that Kaidan told you about what happened while you were gone.” Shepard’s expression softened at the sound of her voice as he nodded.

“Yeah,” he said as he turned to look back at Kaidan. “Yeah, he did.”


	22. A New Dent

Kaidan’s hand came up to rub his own jawline as he turned away from them both and walked back towards the bed. While standing next to it, he covered his eyes with that same hand and refused to speak. Shepard watched him for a few seconds, but soon turned his attention back to Liara. “So I guess it’s true then? You and…him? Really?” Liara nodded quietly, keeping her face turned to the floor. “And that thing about you stealing memories? Was that true too?” Again, she nodded.

“Yes, but the first time was an accident. Asari…well,” she paused while trying to find less vulgar words. “We connect by a mental link. You and I even connected briefly back on Earth. It works both ways. Kaidan’s thoughts were so full of you that they overwhelmed me.” He came closer to her, though not in an imitating way. His voice remained soft and sweet towards her as his hands touched her elbows since she was practically hugging herself for comfort at this point. At his touch, she jumped almost out of fear in shakes. Looking up, she was able to see his smile and it was enough to force the tears to roll from her eyes.

“No one’s blaming you for that first time,” he said, but looked disappointed afterwards. “But why keep doing it?” The flushed blue face looked away as the right words got caught in her throat.

“I…I’ve always,” she stammered in her confession from both embarrassment and shame. “But we never did, so when Kaidan kept thinking about you, it was almost as if…” Even without complete sentences, Shepard could tell where this was going.

“Ah,” was all he managed to say and removed his touch, but after taking a step back, he was grabbed by his hands.

“But then it wasn’t about you anymore!” Liara exclaimed, first looking to Shepard before looking towards Kaidan. “I just wanted to make him happy!” Shepard turned to look back at Kaidan as well, who was now a bit shaken at the new lines of confession. Kaidan also looked confused, mouthing a few choice words in silence.

“So,” Shepard tried to make sense of what was being said as he turned back to her. “In the end, he was the only one who was still thinking about me? And you were…instead just attempting to get him to think about you?”

“That’s right. It was wrong for me to be so invasive, but I thought that if I found that spark somehow, I could take his mind off you. I mean, you were dead, Shepard.” She wiped a tear from her cheek rather quickly.

“Everyone keeps reminding me of that,” he sighed while rubbing the bridge of his nose. “You do know what he wants me to do, right? He wants me to ask you to leave the ship. I’ve been given a choice: either you go or he goes.” She nodded as she took as step back and awaited Shepard’s order. “But that’s not something I’ll ever ask one of my best friends to do.”

“Shepard! That’s!” Kaidan finally brought himself into the conversation only to get blocked by Shepard body as he approached.  He then grew quiet after he was met with a deathly stare. Afterwards, Shepard shifted his gaze back to Liara, who was looking up at him once again.

“Like I said, I would never ask one of my best friends to leave my ship and my crew. That’s not something I’d ever do.” In a sigh of relief, Liara managed a smile, but it was short-lived.

“Thank you, Shepard. I…” she began, but was cut off.

“Which is why you’re going to volunteer.” The very line was a shock to her core.

“…What?” she asked as her confused voice was barely audible. Shepard straightened his posture and looked Liara dead in her frightened eyes.

“You’re going to tell me that you’d be a better help to me as the Shadow Broker back in your office on Illium.  That you’re sorry that you can no longer accompany me on this journey, much like how you couldn’t before when I went to take on the Collectors. That you have a lot of catching up to do.” Liara stared blankly for a moment as Kaidan looked on, confused as well. “So, Liara? Was there something you wanted to tell me?” Even though Kaidan had his arms crossed earlier, he too moved to stand at-ease as Shepard did. Finally, Liara knew that she was outnumbered two to one.

“Yes,” she began also standing up straight. “Shepard, I regret to inform you that I must return to Illium. There is some unfinished business there that I need to take care of before it gets out of control.”

“Really? That’s too bad, Liara. I sure could have used you on this mission,” said Shepard in monotone.

“Yeah, that’s really too bad, Liara,” added Kaidan in a mirrored voice.

“Yes, well. I believe I can still be of help to you by tracking the movements of possibly indoctrinated groups. I missed the mining facility once before because I ignored the numbers, but I don’t plan on letting that happen again.” Shepard nodded as he gave a polite, but sad smile.

“Alright,” he said with a pat on the shoulder. “Tell Joker to head that way. Good luck…and thanks.” Liara gave a polite smile as well before she quickly turned to leave through the door. As it closed behind her, Shepard let out a heavy sigh.  Heading to the bed, he collapsed on top of the mattress with his head in his hands.

“I can’t believe you pulled that off,” Kaidan said to Shepard as he walked over and took a seat nearby. “Shepard? Shepard, are you alright?” Rolling over, Shepard sat up and stood to speak while staring at the door.

“Kaidan, you always question where my loyalties lie when it comes to you, you know that?” he said as he finally glanced over in Kaidan’s direction. “You want to hear the truth of it? Here it is: I was willing to be alone fighting the Leviathans because I made a stupid mistake that I didn’t want you to pay for by me trusting them, I just made one of my best friends walk away from me because you didn’t want her around, I went and faced the Collector Base without you because you didn’t want to look at my face anymore, I put you in that escape pod because I wanted to keep you to safe…” He paused, making sure he was being looked in the eyes. “And I let Ashley die next to a bomb even though you didn’t even notice how much or how long I’ve loved you. Don’t ever question my loyalty again, Kaidan. You might not like the answer after today.” With that, he pulled off his shirt in frustration and tossed it onto the floor as he headed to the bathroom.

Kaidan was stunned into silence as he watched Shepard storm off. It was the first time he had ever really been called out like that. Actually, that entire rant was the first time Kaidan had heard most of those things out loud. As he began to take of his boots, he thought to himself about the events Shepard mentioned. He had always assumed that Shepard left Ashley behind because of the feelings they shared back then, but that’s the first time he had been told specifically…and maybe shared feelings was also an exaggeration. Sure, Kaidan liked Shepard back then. There may have been a few lingering glances and smiles between the two of them, but nothing ever came from it. There was Liara, of course, and also Ashley who served as a buffer or as a deterrent, depending on how you looked at it. He admittedly had an attraction to them both at first and why wouldn’t he? He was a young, handsome, healthy  male. He knew that women found him attractive and had an attraction to them as well. Still, who was he compared to Shepard; The hero who had most of the female crew fawning at the very sight of him? If only they noticed that the only one Shepard ever looked back at in that sort of way was him. He almost felt bad for them.

_Yeah, Shepard was always looking at me, wasn’t he_?

Be it on the original Normandy while fighting the Geth or the desperate attempt Shepard gave despite Kaidan shutting him down on Horizon during the Collector attacks, his eyes always looked at Kaidan in the same way that all the women would look at him. Even after being apart for so long, fighting alongside him back on Mars after all that time, it was if nothing had changed. “I’m a complete fool,” he muttered to himself as he stood up to head over to the bathroom door. It was shut, which caused him to knock and yell through the metal. “Shepard?! Shepard, open up!” There was no answer, but he could hear the shower running. He had assumed the door was locked and was meaning to press the button multiple times, which is why he looked surprised after having to only press it once. Inside, there was fog of steam as Shepard stood naked under the hot cascading water. His arm pressed to the wall with his head resting upon it as he looked down at the drain below. The skin of the knuckles of his right hand was also red and peeling from punching at the wall behind him, leaving a new dent.

When he saw Kaidan out of the corner of his eyes, Shepard looked up to see the barefooted biotic standing in the doorway. There was a glare at first, but his eyes widened as he was walked right up to with the other while still fully dressed.  Pinned to the wall underneath the shower head, he was kissed.

“I love you.” The normally neat salt and pepper hair had fallen flat against Kaidan’s forehead, showing off how long it actually was in the front. The black t-shirt he wore clung to his muscular upper body while his pants drooped a bit down from the water’s weight.  Despite the awkward situation, his eyes were fixed firmly into the set in front of him.  “I’m an idiot, I know that and…woah!” In an attempt to step back, he ended up accidently slipping on the mini bottle of liquid soap which had been carelessly left on the shower floor. On his ass, he looked completely defeated underneath the running water with Shepard standing nude and dripping wet over him, snickering. Kneeling down, Shepard reached to pull off Kaidan’s black t-shirt. After wringing it out over Kaidan’s head with a smile, it was tossed to the other side of the bathroom.  As the water splashed over the already dripping hair, Kaidan could only laugh at himself as well. He did come running in there half-cocked and this is what he deserved.

Looking up, he finally noticed the type of smile that Shepard had. It was a soft, press-lipped one that meant the apology had not fallen onto deaf ears.  Reaching, he placed his hand on Shepard’s softly stubbed cheek, caressing it with his thumb as they shared a moment of silence.  It was sweet, but interrupted as Shepard gave the hand a push away so that he could get to the pants better. Sitting there, Kaidan was really helpless to protest, not that he really wanted to, as Shepard undid his belt and pulled everything off along with his pair of soaked boxers. There wasn’t even an attempt to wring those out before they were tossed on top of the shirt in the corner.


	23. Steam (NSFW)

So there Kaidan sat, bare-assed on the warm floor as the water from the shower was mostly being blocked from hitting him directly in the face by Shepard’s back. He was being crawled on top of, his arms going around Shepard’s toned body as he was straddled once again. This time, there wasn’t any protest about being kissed. In fact, there wasn’t any talking going on at all. Their bodies slid against each other as they enjoyed the slippery warm feeling running water beading against their skin. Their erections met, being rubbed together at first by just the natural movement of Shepard’s hips, but then by Kaidan’s hand as he took hold of both the best he could. They moaned at this, breaking deep kisses to free their mouths, his shoulder then being bit. He kept his other strong arm wrapped around Shepard’s and took in both the sounds and scents he had been longing to hear.

Shepard did seem more sensitive though with a more youthful body, twitching at nearly every touch. Everything tingled as if it were the first time he experienced such sensations. He swore that Kaidan had to be using biotics or something, but there wasn’t a blue light in sight. His reconstructed was to blame for this just like how his beard didn’t grow in nearly as fast as the hair on top of his head did and that he was about to cum from just a handjob in the shower. All of his muscles tensed up at once upon a release big enough to coax Kaidan’s fingers and manhood in the sticky white fluid. While surprised at first, Kaidan soon felt proud of himself. There Shepard was slumped on top of him in a panting mess while he was still rock-hard and ready to go.

“Well, well,” he taunted as he attempted to flick off the semen from his fingers at first, but with Shepard still leaning over the way he was, it seemed like a better idea anyway to use it for something more productive. The digits worked their way underneath his body and spread the juices around a puckered opening instead. At first, he clenched at the sudden invasion, immediately alerted to it. However, at Kaidan’s persistence with some very sensual kissing to his chest and stomach, they pushed pass the outer ring. Looking down, he could only see the wavy head of wet black and white hair moving around as his lower half was being smelled, caressed, and savored.

With the fingers more easily slipping in and out, Kaidan pulled his hand away to take Shepard by the hips and lowered the quivering man down. He enjoyed watching Shepard’s flushed and aroused face, something he never got to see clearly with the usual beard in the way.  The new younger –looking features were also very nice to look at from this angle. He wasn’t as bulky to hold anymore either and his skin felt soft and fresh, especially back where Kaidan was cupping as his manhood slipped inside. The length was worked in slowly as he gave a playful spanks to encourage movement on top of him, relaxing with a leg spread out while the other was bent at the knee for support. Shepard kept rocking his hips up and down, controlling the speed and tightness as he pleased.  As he bounced, Kaidan simply held him close with his mouth attached to whatever was in front of him, be it a nipple to gently suck and nibble on or licking water dripping down his chest. The spanking also continued, although light, the water made it sting pleasantly on both his bottom and on the palm inflicting it.

“God, Shepard,” was whispered close to climax. His erection was grabbed once again, the tip massaged between jerks. Kaidan’s louder moans soon peaked as released inside. Another cry echoed out as a second orgasm came out, spraying his chest and stomach with jets of white. They panted together before Kaidan pulled out with an uncomfortable hiss, his face buried on the bare chest he held close.

“Someone should turn off the water, huh?”

“You’re the closest.”

Blowing the water from his face, Shepard ran a hand though the jet black wet hair to get it off of his forehead with a laugh, reaching with a turn to tap the controls without having to stand. Kaidan watched, reluctant to let go and actively held on to help balance the maneuver.  “We should…dry off maybe?” Shepard asked, not really sure if he wanted to. “As soon as that load you put inside of me drains out…”

“Keep squirming like you are and I’ll put in another one.”

“Is that a threat, Major?”

“Hey, that’s a promise!” Kaidan chuckled as he stood up first, walking to the closet to grab a towel and quickly dried his face and head off before tying it around his waist. He then grabbed a second one, walking over to Shepard with an extended hand to help him. This time, Shepard actually accepted and was yanked up carefully. Kaidan took it upon himself to dry Shepard’s head off and wipe away any semen that was still on their chests and anywhere else it had been clinging to. He then moved to dry the man off entirely. He laughed, but just stood there before taking the towel away and tied it around his waist.  During another round of drying with a fresher towel, a romance kiss was stolen causing both to blush. “That…was amazing, but remind me me again why we never did it in shower like that before?”

“Probably because we couldn’t fit like that before now?” Shepard replied while walking to the steamed over mirror and wiped it with his hand. “I’m sure you’ve noticed. I’m not the same as I was when I left…” He sounded sad about it, and for good reason. A good portion of his muscle mass was gone and God, did he miss his beard. Kaidan frowned at his tone, but came up to hug him from behind anyway.

“It’s nothing bad, Shepard. That doesn’t matter to me.” Secretly, Kaidan was actually enjoying the younger body very much, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud. It felt nice to be the bigger man as it were, but his sentiments weren’t exactly oblivious to Shepard either. What used to be a minor difference in appearance of a few years apart was now looking to be as if he were at least ten years younger. “Come on, let’s go to bed for a bit. You’ve got to be as exhausted as I am.” Indeed, he was rocking Shepard’s body back and forth with his head rested against the back of the man’s shoulder.

“Yeah, come on. A few hours of shut-eye couldn’t hurt. It’s a long flight back to Ilium without a relay to jump through.”


	24. A Little Dancer

Shepard managed to get away from Kaidan long enough to go back into the bedroom. While he stopped at the closet, Kaidan headed directly to the bed and dropped the towel to the floor. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked, stopping Shepard before he even got a leg into his boxers.

"Putting on underwear?"

"Yeah, I don't think so. Get your jailbait ass in this bed." The boxers were happily tossed back into the closet. In bed, it felt nice, warm, and most of all, safe. Safety was a feeling which neither got to enjoy very often. "Shepard?"

"Hm?" he muttered while idly twirling Kaidan's wet hair with his fingers. Sitting up, Kaidan moved to lean over his face, touching noses for a bit with a smile before starting to kiss him again. This wasn’t over yet.

Kyo and Shiro had separated for few hours as Kyo went to go take tequila shots with Cortez and Vega down in the hanger, while Shiro had been conversing with Liara after she returned from Shepard's cabin. While not the best person on relationship advice, he did calm her down by talking about her work instead. She was the Shadow Broker, after all, and with Shiro, Legion, and EDI now feeding her information, she felt more focused on the bigger picture in regards to the new Leviathan threat versus her feelings for Kaidan. Still, it was of little comfort that she was being forced to leave the ship and eventually took her leave to be alone for a while. Miranda still refused to talk directly to the ex-agent and instead went to talk to Liara privately. He was fine with being avoided by her and instead opted to go take another shower as he still felt dirty from Rannoch. He was only in there for a few minutes before Kyo stumbled in a bit drunk, stopping to yank off his shirt with the rest of his clothes as he sang rather loudly to himself. It was an older song; at least Shiro thought it was. The words were poppy and vulgar.

“ **Last night a little dancer came dancin' to my door;  
****Last night a little angel came pumpin’ cross my floor;  
****She said, ‘Come on baby, I got a license for love;  
****And if it expires pray help from above!’** …Oh. Hey, Shiro," he said when he noticed how he wasn't alone after he removing his pants and underwear.

"…Hello," he spoke back almost timidly as Kyo banged the panel to get the hot water started. It was curious to watch the younger man soak his messy black hair while continuing with singing loudly in the stall next to him. The clear voice echoed as he pranced around a bit while washing his body. He even started to air guitar at some points to the music that was obviously playing in his head.

" **In the midnight hour, she cried more, more, more!  
****With a rebel yell, she cried more, more, more!”**

He then walked over to Shiro's stall to dance around him.

" **In the midnight hour babe,  more, more, more!  
****With a rebel yell, more, more, more!  
****More, more, more!"**

Laughing, Kyo finally stopped singing when he noticed just how stiff his friend’s body had become. "Ah I'm sorry. I had some shots down with the guys and it kind of went to my head. We were singing and stuff…sorry." Finally moving again, Shiro nodded.

"It's fine," he paused when he noticed how he was being looked at. It was only for a second before Kyo turned his eyes away. Was it his white hair again? Or his implants? Kyo had already made several remarks about how weird they looked compared to other humans. Now conscious about his appearance, he looked down, twirling the ends of his long, wet hair on his fingertip. "Sorry if it bothers you so much," he mumbled before turning his back. Eyes scanned the row of silver and blue implants down his spine.

"It doesn't bother me anymore," Kyo said as he reached out to touch the one located on the back of the other man's neck. It was a silver ring with sapphire-colored blue stone center that felt cold to the touch, even with the hot water running. It also made Shiro quiver as if he could actually feel the finger graze it. This was a surprise and the hand was removed with a blush. Kyo had no idea that he could feel…well.

_That._

"I," he started to stammer, looking around for something to change the mood. "Hey, let me wash your hair, okay?" he felt saved by panel behind them labeled shampoo and conditioner built into the back wall. It was the men's bathroom after all, so there wasn't a need for anything beyond generic products. Moving to the panel, he gave the dispenser button a few pushes to get a handful of the smell-good cream into his palm before coming back over. With both set of fingers, he forced the goo into Shiro's head until it bubbled over.

He stood there obediently his head was scrubbed with care, a part of him enjoying it. It was a bit fun to be pampered and fussed over like this. It was definitely a new experience as he never had anyone outside of Shepard even care about his well-being before, but those were the feelings of someone he considered family. Kyo was not family, but there was still an undeniable closeness between them. Before he had time where he could think much else about it, he was suddenly directed back under his shower stream. The soap was rinsed out rather quickly and with his eyes still closed, a towel was draped over his head. Kyo took his time drying the head off with many ruffled shakes before pulling the towel down around the shoulders. "And done,"he smiled while looking at his handy work. Shiro's hair was fluffed to be sure, forcing out a small laugh. "Okay, wait. I can fix this. Let me grab a brush and…"

"I don't have a brush," Shiro said as he tried to smooth it out with his hands. It kind of worked before hair was pulled into a messy ponytail.

"Oh? Well, we'll have to get one then. We'll be docking at Ilium soon right? We'll go down and pick something up, okay? My treat." Kyo then went to grab a fresh towel to first wrap Shiro up in like a burrito and a second one for his own waist. "Let's…go get dressed," he insisted while shooing out the door, heading towards their bunk room across the hall. As the Normandy docked at Ilium once again, Liara, Shiro, Kyo, Vega, and Cortez all wanted to get a bit of shore leave. Shepard and Kaidan opted to remain in their room, as did Miranda, who was hell-bent on reclaiming her former office. Joker and EDI stayed on board as well as Joker had promised to have a nice long chat with his girlfriend when given the chance. Legion also stayed to help Miranda as requested. Once in the main thoroughfare of the planet's shopping arcade, Liara said goodbye to her former crew. This left Cortez and Vega alone with the new guys. While having bonded well with Kyo already, the two still weren't sure what to make of the father of their commander.

"So," Vega said trying to break the ice. "You must get a kick out of being carded when at a bar, huh?"

"Smooth," mocked Cortez.

"What? I'm just trying to start a conversation," Vega laughed heartily. "I'm standing in the presence of greatness here. This is Shepard's old man…uh…sorta." Cortez just rolled his eyes as he put an arm around Shiro's shoulders.

"Don't mind him. He's an idiot. I'm Steve Cortez, by the way. We haven't been formally introduced," Cortez said while leading him away from the group. Both Vega and Kyo made faces at that before hurrying to catch up.

"Yes, I'm aware who you are, Lieutenant Cortez," Shiro nodded to him politely.

"Please just Cortez is fine or Steve if you prefer." He managed to turn up the charm just enough to come off as kind, but not aggressive, but was only nodded to again with the same neutral expression.

"Cortez, then."

"And I'm James Vega. James…or just…Vega. Just don't call me Jimmy," Vega interrupted as he hurried to his other side, causing a sandwiched-like feeling between the two men as he was being ushered along into the local bar on the far end of the hallway and up a flight of stairs. Kyo was close behind, though he seemed preoccupied by something. He had mentioned something about being on Ilium before, but didn't go into exact details. Inside the bar was nearly a full house with some live entertainment in the back. Vega was quick to move to the bar where a throaty-voiced Asari asked them what they wanted.

"What are you drinking tonight, _Bonita_?" Vega asked with a stupid grin. Both Cortez and Shiro glared at the nickname.

"Bonita, Vega? Seriously?" Cortez spoke out in obvious disapproval while shaking his head. "That's a bit much, even for you."

"What? He looks like a Bo-ni-ta with that face and hair of his. You don't mind, do you? It's just a nickname." Shiro wanted to protest, but stopped himself.

"It's…fine," he instead muttered while looking around the room. Kyo had left his side, which was very odd for him, and had instead posted himself against a wall with his arms crossed and eyes fixed on the far side of the room. On the other end of the bar was a small stage show featuring live entertainment. Right now, there was a human female singer performing to a crowd of Krogans, Turians, and a few Asari with maybe one or two Quarians. Shiro couldn't make out the entire audience from this angle, but Kyo had kept his distance. His face had also lost the smile it had earlier as he stared with malice at the performance. While Vega and Cortez were busy being preoccupied over which drink to order, Shiro snuck away to see what was so distracting that Kyo had forgotten about him. At first, he stood by his side hoping to get his attention. Rocking back and forth didn't seem to work nor did being close enough to even touch arms. Finally, he spoke up.

"Do you miss it?"

"Miss what?" Kyo asked, apparently having noticed Shiro a while ago, but never acknowledged it.

"The stage? Performing I mean. Do you miss it?" Shiro clarified, looking at Kyo for a response. Still, not making eye contact, Kyo only shook his head.

"No, being on stage was never something I actually liked. Performing with my friend is what it was all about, but he's gone now." Again, there was silence that Shiro eventually tried to awkwardly break again.

"She's not very good, is she?" To this, Kyo gave a sarcastic, bitter laugh.

"No, she never was very good." When the set ended, the girl gave a bow in her sparkly, short cocktail dress and turned to leave the stage through the curtain behind her. Afterwards, he finally stood up straight and headed to the bar in a hurry. Pushing past the drinking pair he had abandoned, he leaned over the counter to speak to the barkeep. "I need to backstage. Official Alliance business."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kyo was singing Billy Idol's 'Rebel Yell'  
> Vega's nickname for Shiro, 'Bonita' is Spanish for 'Pretty Girl'.


	25. The Show Must Go On

"Yeah, I can't tell you how many times I heard that line before, pal. Backstage is for performers only, so unless you plan on getting your hot ass up there to sing and dance, no means fuck off." Banging his fists on the counter, he then tried to think of a plan.  
  
"Wait, that's open mic right?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Then I'll sing. Sign me up."

"Man, you must really have it hard up for that human who screeches like a Krogan baby." She moved to duck under the counter and pulled out a datapad. "If you're willing to embarrass yourself for a bit of action, who am I to judge?"

"Alright, Kyo! You're gonna rock the house DOWN!" Vega shouted while clapping his hands. Cortez had to laugh about that, though in a calmer manner, he took Kyo's shoulder and pulled him off to the side.

"So, you really gonna do this? You’ve got the hots for that girl already?" he whispered.

"No it's not…"

"You're up next kid, move it or lose it," the bartender called out. Kyo's eyes scanned for the mysterious woman, but he couldn't find her before he was put on the staircase that led up to the stage. Outside, a large red and gold Krogan wearing a black tux with a red bowtie spoke up in an old-fashion standing microphone with a datapad in hand. "Up next," he began to read carefully. "We have a great treat for you…Oh? Well, this is a surprise. Ehem, from the once popular band from Earth, we have Kyo Takashi, former lead singer of _Otherside_. Huh, someone with talent for once. Well, here he is folks." Beckoned to walk out, Kyo did so calmly. It surprised a few people how he was in N7 armor, but the muttering died down with the lights. Vega and Cortez had grabbed Shiro to find a table in the pit as their resident singer stood there at the microphone stand. With a small smile, he laughed a bit, taking it in hand.

"Yeah, so I have no idea what I'm singing?" he said with a smile as he turned to look around.

"Geesh, didn't you read the contest? It's Inspirational Earth themed! Humans don't know your own damn songs!"

"Inspirational…Earth? Is today a holiday?" he joked again, getting few chuckles from the audience.

"It's Shepard's day!” yelled an Asari.

"IS it?” he jested again, trying to sound as if he didn’t know despite not actually knowing. “In that case, I'll be singing an old Earth song by another man who died before his time. This is, **_Don't Stop Me Now_**." Clearing his throat at first, he finally gave the cue for the music to start. His voice instantly harmonized with the slow piano that began to play.

“ _ **Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time**_  
 _ **I feel alive and the world I'll turn it inside out - yeah**_  
 _ **And floating around in ecstasy**_  
 _ **So don't stop me now, don't stop me**_  
 _ **'Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time**_ ”

Once the music picked up, he took the microphone off its stand to walk around the stage with. The backup vocals were provided by a recording, but they allowed for his voice to sing over the main lyrics. Lights twinkled to the beat as the natural performer revved up the audience through arm gestures and waving.

“ _ **I'm burnin' through the sky yeah**_  
 _ **Two hundred degrees**_  
 _ **That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit**_  
 _ **I'm trav'ling at the speed of light**_  
 _ **I wanna make a supersonic man out of you!'**_ "

He pointed at his friends’ general area, but every male down the same pathway cheered with raised fists. The next lines sung however where aimed directly at Shiro, who did indeed take notice even if he was fairly sure Freddie Mercury never meant them to be.

“ _ **Yeah, I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars**_  
 _ **On a collision course**_  
 _ **I am a satellite; I'm out of control**_  
 _ **I am a sex machine ready to reload**_  
 _ **Like an atom bomb about to**_  
 _ **Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh explode!**_ ”

His face turned red and he put it down on the table to hide, though his eyes remained fixated on the stage as the final lyrics were sung and closing simple vocal rifts performed until the music faded away. As if coming down from a high, Kyo returned to the center stage and reattached the microphone to the stand. He gave a wave before moving to quietly walk away, but was blocked by the Krogan. The audience was still cheering for an encore, but he was hesitant to stay any longer.

"Wasn't that great, folks?" spoke the announcer as he put a heavy arm around armored shoulders. "How about another song, kid?"

"Well, I don't really…"

"YEAH MAN, SING ANOTHER!" shouted Vega from his seat. Shiro had been quiet the entire time, completely enamored by the performance. Sure, Kyo had sung around him lots of times before, but that was something he had never seen before.

"Look kid, sing another and I'll give you whatever you want. I've got a dancing Hanar after you! I need something to keep people here," was whispered in his ear as a clawed hand covered the microphone's tip.

"Give me access to Maya Atorti's room and you've got a deal.”.

"Got a thing for her too, eh? Fair enough. SO, WE HAVE OURSELVES AN ENCORE!” Clearing his throat, Kyo thought for a minute before speaking.

 "We all lost someone in this war. We had friends die. Family. Children. Lovers. My best friend and bandmate David, he…" There was a genuinely sad pause. "He didn't make it. We were on Earth when the Reapers hit and I made it to the shuttle, but then he went back for someone he cared about. Thing is, who he went after didn't care about him too much, but that didn't stop him. That was the type of guy he was. He gave his life for someone who didn't give a damn about him. He was a true hero and this was his favorite song. I never liked it honestly, but I will today." Kyo stopped to laugh a bit about it. "Well, this is dedicated to all those heroes who aren't here with us anymore. It's called ** _, The Show Must Go On_**."

The lights went dark as the slow and melancholic music began to fill the room. It was a drastic change from the previous song which celebrated a carefree life.

“ _ **Empty spaces - what are we living for?**_  
 _ **Abandoned places - I guess we know the score**_  
 _ **On and on, does anybody know what we are looking for...?**_  
 _ **Another hero, another mindless crime**_  
 _ **Behind the curtain, in the pantomime**_  
 _ **Hold the line, does anybody want to take it anymore?**_  
 _ **The show must go on.**_ ”

The lyrics stung everyone in their own way. Many worlds were destroyed by the Reapers. Where there were once sprawling cities were now abandoned and empty unmarked graves as painful reminders of those who stood bravely and died defending.

“ _ **Inside my heart is breaking**_  
 _ **My make-up may be flaking**_  
 _ **But my smile still stays on.**_ ”

The survivors were those in this bar, listening to their pain being sung and told to keep on living regardless.

“ _ **Whatever happens, I'll leave it all to chance**_  
 _ **Another heartache, another failed romance**_  
 _ **On and on, does anybody know what we are living for?**_  
 _ **I guess I'm learning, I must be warmer now**_  
 _ **I'll soon be turning, round the corner now**_  
 _ **Outside the dawn is breaking**_  
 _ **But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free**_  
 _ **The show must go on.**_ ”

Those who had someone to curl up with were sad at the thought of losing them. Those who had lost someone, like Cortez, sat quietly as a few slow tears slid down their cheeks.

“ _ **I'll top the bill, I'll overkill**_  
 _ **I have to find the will to carry on**_  
 _ **On with the show.**_  
 _ **The show must go on...**_ ”

Kyo closed his eyes as he channeled the memories of how many times he heard this song against his will. How he had only memorized the lyrics because he'd been coaxed into singing it while David would play the music in the background. At the end, he stood there quietly as the music faded out and the overhead lights came back on. The applause was slow, at first, as the audience began to recover enough to notice that it was over. Even Vega had wet cheeks when he clapped as hard as he could with Cortez doing the same, but Shiro did not. In fact, he wasn't even at the table anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs Featured: Don't Stop me Now and The Show Must Go On by Queen


	26. Batarian Drug Smuggling

On the ship, Kaidan was curled up around his pillow on the bed while sleeping on his stomach. He was still in the nude; the blanket thrown over his backside only covering a bit of cheek and one of his legs. When the light clicked on overhead, his face twisted and buried itself into the white pillowcase. Shepard had just emerged from the bathroom wearing a pair of red boxers with white stripes down the sides along with a white towel being used to fluff his hair. Walking closer, he climbed carefully up on top of his sleepy lover to whisper in an exposed ear. "Kaidan? Kaidan?" he cooed lovingly while nosing the shell of it. There was an audible groan.

"Just five more minutes…”

"You've be out for nearly twelve hours now. It's time to get up." At least that was enough to faze him into at least open his eyes a bit as he rolled onto his back to look at Shepard.

"Twelve hours? I haven't slept like that in ages…"

"I'll take that as a compliment," he chuckled as he got off the matress to return to the bathroom. Rubbing his face, Kaidan forced himself to sit up. The hand almost immediately moved from his eyes to holding his lower back in a hiss.

"Argh! Damnit John!" Shepard laughed loudly from the other room before coming out with two glasses of water. He handed one over to the sore man before sitting down on the edge of the bed with his own.

"What? Shouldn’t you be used to that by now?” Kaidan downed half of his glass before speaking again.

"Well, it's been awhile for me, alright? You didn't have to be so damn rough…"

"You weren't complaining when you were panting underneath me or when you came so hard, you passed out right there."

"I was caught up in the moment!" he blushed while continuing his back at the same time as trying to finish his drink. His glass was taken from him and both were set upon the coffee table. "Wait, are we still docked on Ilium?" Shepard nodded and returned to the bed to snuggle up on his side.

"The crew took a bit of shore leave, but they haven't checked in yet. Should we call them?"

"Probably a good idea considering Vega is the commanding officer. Ha, I bet they haven't even left the bar yet."

"Or he lost a bet against our shuttle pilot in a poker game and is desperately trying to win back his pride.” Still visibly sore, Kaidan shifted his weight to lie back against Shepard's chest. An arm was wrapped around him after tapping at the omni-tool to make a video call. It beeped, and beeped, and beeped some more, but there was no reply the first attempt.

Nor the second.

Nor the third.

Finally, there was an answer.

" _Hello?_ " Vega said as his face popped up on the digital monitor. "Oh….hey commander…"

"Don't, _‘hey commander’_ me, lieutenant. Where the hell are you guys?"

"Uh," he paused while looking around. "We're on Ilium…still."

"…Yes, I am aware of that, but why?"

"Well, uh." His throat cleared as there was noise in the background from a Salarian doctor speaking about triage.

"…Vega. Are you in the hospital?"

"Well, _I'm_ not in the hospital. Uh, personally, you know?"

"Uh huh. Well then _who_ is? And why isn't my dad answering his comm…?"

"Oh, your old man is fine, Loco. He just…uh…didn't want to be disturbed."

"Vega, I'm going to give you to the count of three to stop dicking around and tell me what's going on. One. Two…Two and a half…" There was silence as Vega's lips pressed together. He then licked them over nervously.

"Maybe, I should just show you, yeah? Hold up." There was shuffling as he stood up to walk down a hallway and gave a knock on a door. He was yelled at, but let himself in anyway. It was a shaky camera, but Shepard made out a hospital room with his father sitting on a stool at the Kyo's bedside. "See, Shepard? Your old man is fine…but uh. There was a bit of an accident."

"Accident?" Kaidan interrupted. "What the hell does he mean by… _Oh my God_!" he then exclaimed as he pointed at the screen. Shepard squinted to clarify exactly what he was looking at before staring bewildered after he made out what it was. Kyo was definitely in a hospital bed as his father lovingly attended to soldering on a new synthetic arm. Vega gave a nervous laugh as he quickly left the room before speaking into the video again.

"So…yeah. That's kind of it."

" _WHAT THE FUCK, VEGA?!"_ Kaidan practically screamed as he sat up now. "You're gone less than a day and the new guy loses a _FUCKING ARM_?!" Apparently, the shock had suddenly made his lower back feel infinitely better.

"Hey! Don't look at me!" Vega yelled back defensively. "That's between him and Shepard's crazy old man!"

"Shit,” Kaidan sighed as he collapsed back onto the bed. Shepard just groaned a bit as he tried to make sense of the situation.

"Okay, start from the beginning. What _exactly_ happened?" he asked, but Vega only shrugged.

"They aren't talking. Me and Cortez were at the bar when Kyo won this karaoke thing. Next thing I know, the curtain goes up and they're both gone. We spent hours looking only to get caught up in some, um, Batarian drug smuggling explosion with them smack dab in the middle of it."

"Batarian. Drug. Smuggling. You have got to be shitting me right now."

"I don't know, man. This Turian guy saying that he was Kyo's friend ran up to us saying that the sarge saved his family or something from getting kidnapped and then run over, but then, like, some damn…armored truck exploded after it hit them instead! Your dad managed to pull Kyo out the fire, but his arm was messed. I mean, it was fucked, Shepard. Doctors had to remove what was left, so your pops here took this uh, I think it’s a Geth arm? And then, like, modified it into something I ain't ever seen before. He's got some mad tech skills, it's crazy. Funny thing is, the damn thing works."

“…Are you telling me that my dad modified Geth tech to work as a human prosthetic? Where the hell did he even find a Geth arm?!"

"Hey, man! All those Geth died after you did your thing with that Reaper shit. There’s a lot of salvage out there! I mean, sure I asked, but then he looked like he was about to kill me if I were to keep asking," shrugged Vega while rubbing the back of his neck. "I see where you got your crazy from." Shepard remained silent for a moment due to how hard he was rubbing the space between his eyebrows and nose. He wasn't sure if he was even mad or surprised by this. Kaidan remained silent as well as he pushed himself to sit up properly and attempted to stand, but Shepard grabbed his hand before he could walk off.

"Vega, are they discharging him anytime soon?"

"Uh…Hold on, let me ask. Hey! When are you letting my boy out?" asked Vega to an Asari doctor who had walked by.

"Your boy? I'm sorry, are you his father?" she asked, obviously confused as she typed into a datapad.

"Uh, no. I mean I'm his friend. Why? Do I look like his father?" Vega then smiled. "Are you into single dads?" She just shot him a nasty look before pulling up the information.

"Ah, yes. He's free to go at any time. Is there anything else?"

"Uh, no…No that's it. Thank you." He watched yet another one get away but turned back to his omni-tool. "He's free to leave whenever."

"Then get your asses back here for debriefing. That's an order." He sighed at that.

"Yes, sir. We're on our way. Vega out." Shepard pulled Kaidan back down to the bed after the call disconnected to curl up against him, his face pressed against any bare skin he could reach. Kaidan laughed a bit, petting the black feathery hair of his distressed lover. A few hours passed before the crew returned to the ship. Dr. Chakwas buzzed up to the captain’s chamber to inform Shepard and Kaidan, still in bed, that everyone had arrived back to the ship in one piece.

Sort of.

When the pair entered the med bay, Shiro sat alone at Kyo's bedside soldering the remaining exposed flesh parts of Kyo's shoulder with a protective metal alloy covering.

"Lift your arm now. Let's see if that helps take the weight off," he ordered and was obeyed. The new mechanical arm was lifted with wiggling fingers.

"Yeah, that's a lot better. Just doing the forearm strained my biceps. Thanks," Kyo smiled, but Shepard suddenly became very disturbed at how long their gaze lingered.

"Ahem!" he coughed loudly to interrupt the moment that his father and the young singer shared. This caused both of their faces to look flatly at him. Kaidan, however, was quickly fascinated about the arm and pushed passed Shepard to get a better look. It was Geth for sure; however, there were four fingers and a thumb to look like a human hand. He could hear the mechanisms inside as it moved about and was amazed at how smoothly it operated. There were no signs of strain and no cheap, jerky motions like he had imagined. He then couldn’t help but poke at it, not sure what to think, and poked a second time trying to get it to react.

"I can't feel a thing, in case you're wondering," Kyo laughed as he poked Kaidan back playfully, but he jumped away uneasily. "It's like wearing heavy armor all the time. I'm actually used to it, so it's not that big of a deal."

"Yeah, but you can't take it off," said Kaidan wearily as he continued to stare in suspicion. "How the hell…? What exactly happened? I've been in plenty of firefights and explosions, but I never lost a damn limb before." Kyo looked to Shiro, who answered for him instead.

"It's not important," he spoke as he gave a firm look to Shepard. "It's over and done with. It was just an accident and won't interfere with the mission."

"What the hell do you mean, ' _it's not important'_?" Shepard protested. "You don't get to decide that! I'm in charge here and…"

"Leave it alone, Sol. I said it's not important." The voice suddenly became very fatherly.

"…I'm going back to my room to rest," Kyo muttered softly as he slid off the bed in an attempt to escape the situation.

"No, you stay right there and answer me," Shepard began, but was once again cut off by his parent.

"That's fine, Kyo. I'll meet you in there."

"What? I said…"

"I said it's fine, Sol."

"That…"

"Solaris Shepard." With his real full name being called like that, he made a face he hadn’t made in over twenty years. There was silence, which was more than enough for Kyo to nod to Shiro and take his leave. Kaidan watched him go before turning his gaze back to a viable standoff between his lover and his potential father-in-law. With Kyo gone, Shepard spoke up again.

"You're not going to continue to undermine me on my own damn ship, _dad_." Shiro only glared.

"Sol, I'm over twice your age and used to change your piss-drenched sheets. I did the best I could with what I had and made a lot of mistakes, but I never taught you to whine so much. I'm doing what I can to make up for leaving you like I did, but you're going to have to trust me. Kyo didn't do anything wrong."

"Maybe he's right, Shepard. I'm sure Kyo will tell us when he's ready," Kaidan said as he put a hand on Shepard's shoulder. Shepard turned to look at him, surprised by this however, he nodded at the urging.

"Fine. Fine. Whatever.”

"Thank you," Shiro smiled to his son and gave a grateful look to the other biotic. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I should check on him…so…" Shepard took a step to the side to unblock the doorway and watched his father hurry out of it. In truth, Shiro hated fighting with his son, as there was enough guilt between them already. Still, he was more worried about Kyo right now than the semi-hurt ego of his grown boy. Around the corner, Shiro walked into the bunkroom where the lights were turned off and Kyo was lying on the bottom bed they shared with his eyes closed. Quietly, he slipped in and removed a glove so he could touch the metal arm with bare fingertips.

It twitched in reaction.


End file.
